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Fredrik Haren, founder of creativity company interesting.org and author of the best sellers like The Idea Book and The Developing World, has delivered more than 1,500 speeches in over 40 countries across five continents. On the sidelines of the recently concluded ‘Zee Leadership Series’ last week in Mumbai, he spoke to Ashish K Tiwari on topics involving confidence levels, complacency, advantages of being a developing economy, successful companies and so on. Edited excerpts:
On nations becoming confident or possibly over confident.
Every big country has a big confidence, be it America, Russia, China, Brazil or for that matter, India. However, right now, in India the sentiment is a bit down because the economy is not doing so well among other reasons. In my opinion, India is better positioned compared to China, and India needs to open up and say it’s not really all about India but it’s about the world. India needs to develop products and ideas that work across the globe. If India only focuses on how its economy is doing, then there is a possible risk of starting to look inward. That’s something developed world is doing right now.
On the developed world accepting products and ideas from the developing world.
Who creates trends or defines what is beautiful? It’s not the West who defines that. Trends are started by young and confident people who believe in future and that’s where America was after World War II. India is one of the youngest countries in the world with high confidence levels, are optimistic and have a positive approach towards the future. So, who is going to define the next trendy thing? India certainly fits that bill. The whole idea of made in a specific place is not important any more. What is crucial is made by whom and not where. I definitely think that India can create the new trends. Look at where is the growth happening not in the US or Europe, but it’s happening in the rest of Asia. So, companies here should not focus so much on trying to make their products in the US or Europe, but make something that will work globally.
On global versus regional positioning strategy adopted by Indian companies.
There are only some Indian companies doing it. Companies like Zee and Tata are good examples. While holding their values, these companies are branching out of India and are focussing on being a global entity. What I’m saying in my new book ‘one world. one company’ is that companies should not be Indian, American or Swedish, they should be just companies. I don’t say I’m a Swedish creativity speaker but a creativity speaker. It’s irrelevant and you really don’t care whether I’m Swedish, what’s relevant is my message. If companies disconnect themselves from their geographical heritage, they actually become stronger, the brand, culture becomes stronger because then the focus is on what they do and not where they come from. Successful companies right now are the ones becoming, what I call TCGs – not multinational corporations but a truly global company.
On small or big companies becoming successful.
You don’t have to be a big company to be successful. You can be small like Rovio that makes the game Angry Birds. It’s a very small company from Finland but they never say they are Finnish. They just say we are an entertainment company and that’s why they got over a million downloads on their games because everyone identifies with the game and that’s not made for people only in Finland. Indian entrepreneurs should have that mindset from the beginning. Entrepreneurs here are well-positioned to start a global company with a global mindset because they have an understanding of all the religions and cultures. That’s why I like Zee’s approach of ‘The World is My Family’, that mindset is the truly global. And when you have that mindset, you create products for people / humans and not for Indians or Americans. That makes your product universal and that’s exactly what successful companies are all about.
On becoming complacent and related outcomes.
Nokia is one example of a developing company and then it became complacent. Now, Microsoft has taken over the business. So what does that really mean for Nokia? Now, is Microsoft also at a complacent stage? That’s a very difficult question to answer. I’d say Microsoft is very much like Singapore – they are half developed and half developing. There is another view that I have about companies – that of becoming complacent and becoming cocky.
Nokia was cocky, so was Blackberry and like I say about creative confidence, countries or companies should not be too confident about their own creative confidence. You can be very good at something and be cocky at the same time, but the best ones are those that are humble. Tiger Woods David, Beckham they are good at their sport and are humble but there are others like Ronaldo and a few others they are very cocky. So being very cocky is good but being humble is anytime better.
Apple of late has become very cocky. It’s very dangerous to be cocky when you are not very good. Mike Tyson was the best and he was very cocky, then he stopped working out. You see how he eventually ended up being humiliated.
"This interview and its contents belong to DNA newspaper and has been shared on the blog with a view to enlighten the common man and not for any commercial purposes"
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