The European Union voted in October 2008 to ban outright incandescent light bulbs which transform a miserable 5% of the electricity into light. On Monday this week, they published the timing for the suppression of these inefficient incandescent bulbs over the next four years. Starting September 1st 2009, the sale of 100+ watt bulbs will be banned throughout Europe. Over the following two years, the 75W+ and 60W+ will go from European store shelves. And finally, as of September 1st 2012, all classic incandescent bulbs will disappear. Even poor performing halogen bulbs will be targeted (objective to eliminate these by 2016).

A couple of comments: Australia was the first country to vote the end of incandescent bulbs (an outright ban by 2010). The US Congress voted at the end of 2007 the ban of incandescent bulbs by the end of 2014. Europe has voted one year after the US to end these polluting bulbs two years before the US.

With regard to the European decision, they estimate that a household will save 50 euros per year by moving to the low consumption options. Taken in another light, so to speak, this could sound like a stimulus package for the economy? Le Figaro suggested that the savings for all Europe would amount to between 5 and 10 billion euros annually. Admittedly I don’t know the efficiency in the production of the compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL) or other low consumption bulbs, but I am going to hope that the life cycle analysis shows that the halogen or the LED (Light Emitting Diode) is indeed a winner for the environment. Advocates argue that the CFL lasts five years longer and uses about 75 percent less energy than the incandescent bulb. From one article (Red, Green & Blue blog), I note that the 60% reduction in energy consumption would translate into a reduction of 30 million tonnes of CO2 for Europe. The LED option, whose sales have been increasing 40-60% per year, costs a lot more than the incandescent polluter, but the almost infinite durability and tremendous efficiency make a winning proposition as long as you don’t drop it along route from the store.

It is worth noting that, as detractors of this decision state, CFLs contain mercury. CFL’s are still a little bulkier and don’t fit all fixtures. For others, the European decision does not go far enough (e.g. Ban-the-Bulb). So, it may yet be hard to always look on the bright side of light. Nonetheless, I believe that such a decision will, among other things, continue to bring home the need to take action. Like “quota” systems (e.g. Norway’s women on corporate boards…), this law is perhaps anti-free market and will have its detractors. It will obviously change the landscape of the light bulb market (affecting electricians, lamp manufacturers and more). Nonetheless, there are justifiable impositions and, in this case (as in the case of the Norwegian quota) I cast my vote in favour. What about you?

15 YEARS LATER : MY 15-YEAR REUNION AT INSEAD

I have just completed my 15-year reunion at INSEAD in Fontainebleau. There were some 59 fellow classmates (out of about 205) who came in from 16 countries (3 came from Australia). It was a lovely way to reconnect – among other things to remind us of the importance of facetime and networking. As big a fan as I may be for virtual worlds and social media networks, the prescient words of John Naisbitt in High Tech/High Touch ring as ever true today.

There were three themes that seemed to keep coming up, no matter the topic at hand:

- The financial crisis
- The work-life balance
- Sustainable development

On the heels of the record-setting one-day stock market swings (the DJIA gyrated from a low of 7773 to a high of 8989 only to finish down 1.5% on October 10th), a devastating eight days of doom and gloom and a drop of -22% on the DJIA, the financial crisis had a bearing on absolutely every activity discussed. How is the financial crisis going to impact sustainable development? Will the financial crisis hurt social media and “metaverses” (with Professor Miklos Sarvary)? There were no contrarians to be heard. The concept of a worldwide recession was widely used. Clearly, we have not seen the end of the bad news as it will now roll out into other fields, including a predictable credit card crunch and down swing in sales of large ticket consumer goods. And, of course, it certainly will have an impact on executive MBAs coming to INSEAD and current MBAs looking for jobs.

The question of work-life balance was systematically raised, and not just by Gen Y MBA students. I think my wife summed it up rather accurately: work-life balance is a myth. There may be moments when when you are able to achieve more family life, but you are inevitably compromising work and vice-versa.

And on sustainable development, much of the conversation seemed to be focused on reinforcing the existence of global warming, and less about the [clear cut] solutions. We heard from Mohan Munasinghe, Vice president of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, 2007 along with Al Gore), who exposed the framework of “sustainomics.” The notion of sustainomics “draws on three basic principles: (1) making development itself more sustainable through immediate actions, (2) balancing the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, and (3) transcending traditional boundaries of academic discipline, space, time, and stakeholder actions, to produce the most effective solutions.” Of course, I am not sure of the application in my immediate world. Anyway, good to listen to. {Read more on the subject here}.

Bottom line, attending the reunion was grand. Reunions are about seeing old friends, but I also got a lot out of listening to some good lectures and panels on contemporary topics. One of the recurrent conclusions of reunions, though, it is clearly NOT a French thing. Of the 34 French classmates, a total of 7 came (un grand merci à vous d’être venus), of which 3 live overseas — and only a couple of the French came for the whole weekend–too many other priorities elsewhere! Without talking about their lack of participation in alumni giving, it is a shame that the French culture does not seem to enjoy these types of reunions. I am, nonetheless, hoping that for the 20th year reunion (2013) we will get a fuller turnout — and with a bit of luck will be talking about rosier economic times. Thanks to all of you who did come. We certainly have our work cut out for us to bring some order to the world. In the meantime, all 1993 INSEAD alum are welcome to join the Facebook INSEAD ’93 group (assuming the company Facebook survives the current management exodus).

See you next time.

L’OREAL PROFESSIONNEL BUSINESS FORUM 2008

Coming back from the 7th edition of the L’Oréal Business Forum, held September 29 through October 1, 2008, in Villasimius, Sardinia (Italy), I wanted to share with you the day-by-day videocast which was put up on line as soon as each segment was ended. There were 2,000 L’Oréal Professionnel hairdresser clients coming from 27 countries–largely from Eastern Europe–including nearly 1,000 from Russia and groups ranging from Australia, Canada, South Africa and Iran. A veritable coup to film, edit and post all within an hour so many sessions.

LBF 2008

The Forum included business presentations from Bertram K, Gary Rom, Tanya Chernova and Fred Aunis. Prestige shows from Carlo Bay, Berni Ottjes and Laetitia Guenaou. There were also Master Classes from Petra Mechurova, Bertram, Berni and Laetitia.

Right after each segment, participants were able to see the videocasts directly at an internet café set up outside the main tent. will see the 3 days on the left hand tabs, with a morning and/or afternoon session per day. Click on this and tell me what you think!

The US has announced recently that citizens of the 27 visa waiver programme countries (most of Western Europe, Australia, Brunei, Japan, Singapore and New Zealand) will need to register (online) 72 hours in advance of their visit to the US. See here on the official VWP site. The new plan goes fully into effect at the beginning of 2009 (Jan 12 to be exact, after the last of the yea-end holidays are over). This is quite a new dimension to the US’ “security strengthening” policies. It means that any last minute travel to the US is ruled out entirely. Aside from giving a new meaning to lastminute.com (more like last4320minutes.com), this could have a serious impact on last minute deal-making. It will also put a crimp of rushed surgeries, funerals and marriages.

Along with the new surcharges for higher fuel prices and, now, for luggage, the nature of flying is shifting rather brutally. Is it possible that our children will travel much less frequently because of ticket pricing reminiscent of when airline travel was a novelty, security controls that make it necessary to arrive at the airport the day before and service that reminds one of the labor relations at the outset of the industrial revolution?

Overrun airports and flight paths, high fuel prices, global warming and carbon footprints are all rather dissuasive issues for airplane travel. For example, British Airways has announced a £60 fuel surcharge for long-haul flights. As the Daily Telegraph reports, “[t]hat will mean a family of four that is already paying £672 in surcharges on long-haul holiday flights must now find £872.” That equals 1,100 euros or US$1,700 at today’s exchange rate. Apparently, there are more surcharges ahead. Take a look at ClimateChangeConnection’s discussion on air travel (from whence cometh the picture above).

Surely, the new age of travel has dawned on us. Anyone care for a stroll?

WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) began the Earth Hour — lights out for an hour — in 2007 in Sydney Australia. The notion is that between 8-9pm in your time zone wherever you are in the world, everyone is to turn off their lights (or at least make some environmentally friendly gesture). I am writing this post in NYC at 7:45 pm and I was absolutely overjoyed by the Google surprise. Unlike the speculative gains by Google Black (Blackle, about which I posted in August 07), Google outright declared today that the black color (attached) does nothing to save energy. That said, with Google inverting its homescreen, it is the kind of surprise that merits a full monty HATS OFF. When you know that it is estimated that some 300 million searches are conducted on Google every day… What a great way to raise awareness — especially in New York, where offices and people in general have a habit of just leaving all the lights on all the time (great skyline, but poor on the environment).

If you want to follow the effects around the world, you can try this site: Earth Hour 2008, where you can find all the Sydney partner cities.

Kudos to Google for joining the fight. Signing off at exactly 8pm.. Lights Out.

China bans free bags! In a second post (“Getting rid of Plastic Bags” May 2007) on the topic, I read in the Herald Tribune with a mixture of satisfaction and curiosity about China’s intended policy to ban the giving out of free plastic bags in shops (effective June 1 2008). What caught my eye in a Figaro article (Jan 10, 2008 Economie section) on the same subject, was that China evaluates its plastic bag consumption at (“at least”) 1.75 billion per year. With some rough maths, that means that each Chinese person uses less than 1 1/2 plastic bags per year. Either the Chinese are adept at reusing those flimsy bags (because they buy so little?), or that is a somewhat understated consumption number. Judging by this photo (from AFP) in Beijing, there may be room on the upside.

Per the site, Clean Green Bag, the USA uses 100 billion plastic bags in a year. For frame of reference via Inhabitat, “Australians currently use about 6 billion plastic bags a year, with an average use of about 16 bags per person per week.”

From another Inhabitat post, I garnered these facts: there are 4 to 5 trillion non-degradable plastic bags used worldwide annually. 430,000 gallons of oil are needed to produce 100 million non-degradable plastic bags. And, from an MSNBC article, I quote the following “The Sierra Club estimated that if every one of New York City’s 8 million people used one less grocery bag per year, it would reduce waste by about 5 million pounds.”

It should be noted that the plastic bag ban in China goes into effect just before the Olympic Games in Beijing… Good timing!

If you want to do an “ecology” tour in China, that is also available… But don’t expect to visit their landfills or meet with the Ecology Minister… It’s more about a pleasant visit of the China wildlife and fauna.

Yet, for having banned plastic bags, there remains the question of the paper (as in from trees) bags. Action is needed on that front too. For the best solution, bring your own canvas bag (see here for Yahoo answer from NZ). And for more informative solution, read here via Clean Green Bag Alternatives.

The China ban is following in the footsteps of many countries or cities around the world, including Melbourne, Israel, Bangladesh, South Africa, Ireland and even 30 towns in Alaska. Last year, San Francisco went one step better than the levying of a fee for plastic bags by banning them altogether. In so doing, SF is setting the trend for the US. Read more here via TreeHugger.

For more viewing on the topic, check out the Plastic Bag exhibit that was staged in London. See here courtesy of Inhabitat. And here I found a great Green Glossary, from Green is Universal blog, courtesy of NBC.

Facebook is growing at a rate of knots, it’s hard to imagine where it will stop. This pick up from Mashable is interesting as it speaks to the aforementioned (prior post “Googlotics”) role of the online presence in political races. Put your two cents into this Daily Poll about whether online presence will have an impact. The growth of the FB users in anglophone countries means that it is a veritable minefield for those candidates and/or companies that get a [right] foothold into the network. See Mashable’s chart about the exponential growth in Canada, UK and Australia (which is perhaps just on the verge of tipping).

I enjoyed the questions recently posed by Fabrice Grinda on his blog…seems like it is all very inflationary, but at the same time, the money that Microsoft put behind Facebook is not funny money. And, inspired from Psychology of Cyberspace (albeit a dead blog), Facebook is a great way, especially for us older folk, to stay in tune with what’s going on among the younger crowds. I foresee in the near-term people doing all their communications on Facebook and instead of saying “what’s your email?” the terminology will switch to what’s you Facebook name? what’s your FB app? what’s your private Group? The ability to restrict access to your Facebook profile I believe is elemental and, in the relatively slow build of its userbase, there will be a stronger affinity and loyalty if they maintain that sense of restrictiveness (to your friends, networks, etc.). And soon enough Facebook will become a shopping centre (online shopping seems like a gimme doesn’t it?). I can just see it: buy all your family a Christmas present. Send your admirees flowers. Share the launch of your book via Amazon with all your “intellectual” friends (cf Joe Jaffe’s bumrush). See Adrant story.

Great idea is to review what they were saying about Facebook in the past… try the Mashable Facebook “Complete biography”. It was published in August 2006 (feels like years ago, doesn’t it?). The Wikipedia listing for Facebook will have to be one of the most updated items at the moment, considering it is so prevalent in so many people’s minds these days.

Facebook is growing, growing…grown? (aka off to the IPO). Its future growth will depend on three things in my opinion:

1/ the strength of its internationalisation rollout (not to do mistakes like Google with Baidu [thanks Fabrice])
2/ the willingness to leave the freedom with its users (we’ll have to see what restrictions Microsoft might impose)
3/ the ability to convert the Facebook application into a one-stop communication lab.

Are you left, right or whole brained?

One of my favourite ‘business’ books in the past couple of years was “The Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink. (@Amazon, 2005). What I enjoyed about this book was a revaluing of the right side of the brain in business and management in particular. We have for so long been focusing on the more Cartesian, logical qualities of the brain; and, yet, as we can see in the shifting of the consumer mindset, there is a growing appreciation of luxury, of adventurous holidays, a new found importance in imagery & symbols: all qualities bestowed on the right side of the brain.

If you are not sure which side of your brain is dominant, there is a fun new on-line test you can take, which I have was sent on this Perth Now site (as in Western Australia). It is a very rapid and visual Right Side versus Left Side of the Brain Test. (Note that this Perth Now article was published Sept 26 2007 – so it took 14 days to be circulated my way. In addition, it’s also available in Daily Telegraph Australia as of Oct 5) .

And for those of who prefer the good old fashioned word questionnaires, here’s a decent and fast one: similar minds. And again from BlogThings.

Some blogging on Whole New Mind

• Growing Ideas – Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. This site gives a very comprehensive review of the main arguments of WNM. I picked up this image below from G Reynolds — adapted from Dan Pink’s book WNM.

• Fiction Addict positive endorsement
• American Assoc of School Librarians – the relevance for people in the teaching and learning fields
• Again from AASL, a nice review of WNM’s main points by Doug Johnson

And while perusing Dan Pink’s blog, found this story about the Hair Pod, a tidy cabin for haircuts on the go. And I also found this interesting fact courtesy of Dan Pink:
–Only three countries in the world haven’t adopted the metric system: Liberia, Mynamar, and the United States. (Source: Good magazine)

I mentioned in a prior post that on-line activity in elections was heating up (Turkey, for example). The elections of the future can and will be decided by the on-line campaigning. In the pursuit of open debate, we can hope to see lots of on-line chatting, blogging, etc., on the candidates in the run up to elections.

Australia is taking the bull by the horns by creating a Google platform for “2007 Australian Federal Elections” for electors to read up on the candidates, use Google maps, games and gadgets. This site provides an aggregation of information that, if mismanaged, could certainly go bad (and bring Cory Doctorow’s vision of the future just a little closer.

Here’s the story from Google’s own blog. “At Google, we believe that democracy on the web works, and also that the web can work for democracy,” says the company on its Australian blog.

In preparations for the CNIL (Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés) meeting 24 September, in Montréal, Google’s Keeper of the Data, Peter Fleischer, has been on the bandwagon for a worldwide protocol for the protection of private data on the net. Fleischer spoke, on 14 September, at a conference in Strasbourg, organised by UNESCO, on the subject of “Ethics and Human Rights in Today’s World of Information.” (Figaro article, “Google soigne son image de défenseur des libertés“). See BBC report.

Attempting to corral its competitors around this protocol, Google is on a mission with a vision, as leader, to curtail the tail (see Mitch Joel’s great post on the risks of the long tail). One can only imagine the internal wranglings at Yahoo and MSN centred around technological limitations. The bulk of the discussion is based around the longevity and selection of rather ‘delicate’ information, including name, addresses, bank details, photos… Google is proposing an 18 month lifespan — a substantial improvement over infinity, but enough to continue to render one nervous about ‘what’s out there.”

In addition, Google has evidently (it’s hard for me to check) already cut the lifespan of a cookie to two years, unless the user chooses to prolong. Previously, all Google cookies were programmed to live through 2038 (you must wonder how they came up with that year…50 years on?).

I was very curious about Fleischer’s remarks that Asia-Pacific has pioneered in this area. He mentions Australia and Vietnam. No mention of China. Clearly, if China is not on board, it would seem mildly dilutive for Google to search (dare I say googlise) for a worldwide solution.

Meanwhile, our blogs and comments will likely continue with their waggly tails. Writers looking for posterity have their ideal platform. Only challenge is whether they knew what they wanted. What we say or want today may not be true for the future. I can only imagine the potential carnage for future politicians whose acne-prone keyboard inspired one too many confessions.

Of course, 18 months for my bank details actually still seems like a long time to allow a hack or a pirate to play with my moolah.