Sir Richard Branson pledged $3 billion over 10 years for R&D to fight global warming, to kudos at the Clinton Global Initiative. Funds will come from profits on Virgin's air and rail transportation operations. Branson pledges $3B to fight global warming - Sep. 21, 2006
In July, Richard Branson told Business 2.0: "I used to be skeptical of global warming, but now I'm absolutely convinced that the world is spiraling out of control. CO2 is like a bushfire that gets bigger and bigger every year. * * * All of us who are in a position to do something about it must do something about it. Because Virgin is involved with planes and trains, we have even more responsibility. So we've put aside quite a lot of money to invest in alternative fuels. Over the next four years, we'll invest something like $1 billion in alternative fuels." The best business ideas in the world - August 1, 2006
Branson joins billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates and influential personalities like Bono to focus real money and influence on long-term challenges. Recent setbacks for others, such as the "Big Three" auto manufacturers, show how management focused on short-term profits can make rational decisions that can result in lasting damage to the welfare of humanity and the company itself, while making individual managers wealthy.
Clayton Christensen highlighted those logical traps in "The Innovators Dilemma," and Jared Diamond, in "Collapse," revealed how the same sorts of decisions led the the downfall of entire civilizations, usually following the height of their power, influence and hubris. The examples of "long view" thinkers with the power to act on their beliefs is encouraging. Now, if we could only get national and international politicians in the same mindset. To do that will require political will of the majority of the electorate. And, I hear on good authority (Al Gore) that "political will is a renewable resource."
Posted by dougsimpson at September 22, 2006 07:56 AM