could the next steve jobs be asian

Could the next Steve Jobs be Asian?

@benjaminjoffe  

•  This  is  a  newer,  richer  version  of  my  TEDx  talk  “Could  the  next  Steve  Jobs  be  Brazilian”.  

–  It  is  not  about  STEVE  JOBS  (just  a  bit)  

–  Its  purpose  is  to  change  YOUR  views  on  cultures,  Asia  and  innovaMon.  

•  Comments  welcome  at  benjamin@plus8star.com  

DISCLAIMER"

Quiz"

Third-Culture Kid?!

Do you know what a third-culture kid is?

Third Culture or Trans-Culture"

“A  Third  Culture  Kid  (TCK)  is  a  person  who  has  spent  a  significant  part  of  

their  developmental  years  outside  the  parents'  culture.  

Third Culture or Trans-Culture"

“A  Third  Culture  Kid  (TCK)  is  a  person  who  has  spent  a  significant  part  of  

their  developmental  years  outside  the  parents'  culture.  

The  TCK  frequently  builds  relaMonships  to  all  of  the  cultures,  while  not  having  

full  ownership  in  any.”  

I  spent  most  of  my  working  life  (11  years)  overseas,  especially  in  Japan,  China,  South  Korea  and  USA.  My  cultural  DNA  has  become  rather  complex.  

12 years abroad – my cultural DNA"

Living in 8 countries and 4 civilizations, my cultural DNA got enriched

I  spent  most  of  my  working  life  (11  years)  overseas,  especially  in  Japan,  China,  South  Korea  and  USA.  My  cultural  DNA  has  become  rather  complex.  

Trans-Religion"

I have also been exposed to several religions

I  spent  most  of  my  working  life  (11  years)  overseas,  especially  in  Japan,  China,  South  Korea  and  USA.  My  cultural  DNA  has  become  rather  complex.  

Trans-Class"

Working Class Bourgeois

And my social background makes me a sort of “Trans-Class”

Digital Innovation from Asia"

My consulting work is about “trans-market” innovation (or “arbitrage”)

100+ Keynotes in 18 Countries"

I shared ideas at a bunch of events – book me at benjamin@plus8star.com!

Advisor to Startup Incubators"

I also advise startups in 5 incubators in 3 continents

Investor in Global Startups in Asia"

Since 2011"

DayDeed.com

“One good Deed a Day”

(or “Facebook without the crap”)!

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My Plan

A talk has to have a target!

CHANGE your ideas on Asia

Nationality & Innovation

FOREVER not “Obama-style”"Mine is to change your views fundamentally on a few things

THE WEST! THE REST!

This was my view of the world when I grew up.

30% of Earth’s land"60% pop (4 Bln)"

Turns out Asia was a bit more complex than it sounded.

China!Japan!Indonesia!Iran!Israel!North Korea!Philippines!Turkey!Singapore!Russia!

…!

(48 states)"

A  state  must  have  a  permanent  populaMon,  a  defined  territory,  a  government,  and  the  capacity  to  enter  into  relaMons  with  other  states  (Montevideo  ConvenMon,  1933)  

Russia? Turkey? Iran? This is Asia too! Actually, another definition is looking at “Eurasia” as a whole – it only depends on your model

Wikipedia  

Asia – a toponym dating back to classical antiquity – is more a “cultural concept" incorporating diverse regions and peoples than a homogeneous physical entity"

Wikipedia says Asia is a “cultural concept”

Wikipedia  

Asia – a toponym dating back to classical antiquity – is more a “cultural concept" incorporating diverse regions and peoples than a homogeneous physical entity"

Asia  differs  very  widely  among  and  within  its  regions  with  regard  to  ethnic  groups,  cultures,  environments,  economics,  historical  Mes  and  government  systems.   WTF?!?  

But then it says it is a mish mash of cultures varying widely

Culture  

Event the “Culture” part only lists a very Western-centric view: Nobels!

Wikipedia  

Asia  was  originally  a  concept  of  Western  civiliza<on.  

It down to this: an outdated Western concept.

What fascinates me"

The Life of Ideas!

My hobby is looking at how ideas migrate

One useful example: the movable type!

Europe!Gutenberg (1450)"

Korea!Metal (1230)"

China!Bi Sheng (1040)"

Invented in Europe? Not quite: 400 years earlier in China!

What you know can be"wrong!

#0"

First lesson is: millions of people agree on mistaken things

Ideas don’t have a"nationality!

#1"

Is the printing press Chinese? Lucky they did not patent it!

Things can be invented"more than once!

#2"

Gutenberg apparently did not know about the Chinese or Korean types

Time gap can be"bridged!

#3"

What would the world look like if the Chinese type had come to Europe?

Foreign stones!can polish !your jade!

它  山  之  石  ，  可  以  攻  玉    

#4"

With less characters, the type is more usable in Europe than China!

Other examples!

Magnificent  Seven  (1960)  

Seven  Samurai  (1954)  

Hollywood has no problem lifting ideas from other places

How about this one?

The  Matrix  (1999)  

Ghost  in  the  Shell  (1989/1995)  

Visual style (and more) copied from a Japanese manga and movie

Kimba  the  White  Lion  (1965)  

The  Lion  King  (1994)  

“Even  our  lawyers  are  not  that  good”  –  a  Disney  animator  (rumor)  

Hollywood loves Japan it seems

Pi  (1998)  

This movie made Darren Aronofsky famous

Tetsuo  (1989)  

…its visual style is heavily inspired by this Japanese indie movie

InnovaMon  goes  back  and  forth!  

•  Nike  (USA)  and  Asics  (Japan)  

•  Feiyue  (China)  popular  in  Europe!  

Nike used to import Onitsuka Tigers (Asics) before starting its own

(now  served  in  Japan  too)  

California  Rolls!  

Japan now eats California rolls too :-)

Mobile  Augmented  Reality  (AR)  

This is a mobile AR company I consulted for

Where  did  the  idea  come  from?  

What could inspire those Dutch guys?

(Hugo  Award,  2006)  

Science fiction (and very recent!)

Denno  Coil  /  Computer    Coil  (NHK,  2007)  

And a Japanese anime series

Denno  Coil  /  Computer    Coil  (NHK,  2007)  

This  dog  does  not  exist  in  the  physical  world  

AR  Glasses  

Dutch guys inspired by Japanese anime and US science fiction

Ideas don’t have a"nationality!

#1"

Is mobile AR Dutch? Japanese? US? Does the question make sense?

Alibaba  |  China’s  #1  e-­‐Commerce  Planorm  

•  1999  Alibaba  by  Jack  Ma  +  17  others  – Mission:  “To  make  doing  business  easy”  

•  2001  Savio  Kwan  hired  as  COO  –  17  years  GE  Medical  Systems  –  Target:  “Sustainable  long-­‐term  cash  flow”  

•  2010  More  GE  than  GE?  –  “The  GE  spirit  is  alive  and  well  at  Alibaba”  

     David  Wei,  CEO  of  Alibaba.com  

Ideas are not just “products” but can also be management style.

Western  Framing  of  InnovaMon  

The “West” hijacked the idea of “innovation”

Western  Culture?  

•  Ancient  Greece  /  Rome  

•  Chris<aniza<on  (Jesus  from  Nazareth,  in  today’s  Israel)  

•  Renaissance  

•  European  empires  

•  Experiments  with  enlightenment,  naturalism,  romanMcism,  science,  democracy,  and  socialism  

And what is “The West” anyway?

Summary  

•  Ideas  are  everywhere!  

•  Asia  contributes  too  

•  Stereotypes  get  in  the  way  

Unlearning is the hardest part

Western!Latin American!African!Orthodox!Indian!Muslim!

Japanese!Chinese!

Civilizations"

The way I see the world today: civilizations & ecosystems

Emergence of"Digital Civilizations!

And the emergence of “digital civilizations”

Foreign vs. Natives"

Google"Facebook"Amazon"

eBay"Priceline"Yahoo!"

Salesforce"Zynga"

Liberty Interactive"LinkedIn"

Baidu"Alibaba"Tencent"Netease"

Sina"

Softbank"Rakuten"DeNA"Gree"

NHN"Nexon"

Yandex"Mail.ru"

Foreign vs. Natives"

The majority of the largest 23 Internet companies in the world are not US and don’t care about US!

Rebranding of Innovation"

SIMILAR?!

DISMISS!

YES"COPYCAT!!

IT’S AMERICAN!!YES"SUCCEED IN

USA?!

NO"

Anything not successful in US is dismissed, or rebranded if successful

Made in > select country <!

Nationality is a BRAND"

Yep. “Designed in Cupertino” by people from everywhere!

No Direct Equivalent!

The reality is that even “copycats” are always different: brand, marketing strategy, payment system, design, etc.

Local Champions"

Which gives a chance to local champions to beat “global” ones

. Cultural fit". Market knowledge"

Advantage: Locals"

They have 2 key advantages

5C’s of Innovation™"

1.  Copy"2.  Competition"3.  Constraints"4.  Combination"5.  Context"

And can innovate due to ecosystem factors

Learning from the Game Industry"

The gaming industry is pretty dynamic and interesting to look at

Tencent’s QQ | Made for China"

Tencent is a great example of “5C’s” at play: IM with virtual goods and prepaid cards

Leapfrogging"

Differences in ecosystems allow leapfrogging

MODERN  is  not  WESTERN  

And modernization does not equate Westernization

Micro-Multinationals"

Another opportunity is for tiny companies to be global from anywhere

Skype made in Estonia, Spotify from Sweden, Angry Birds from Finland

UberStrike by Cmune | Made from China"

Top 3D Game on Facebook and Mac OS!"

BoomZap | No offices!"

50 staff making casual “point-and-click adventure games”. No office.

One (million) more thing(s)!!

Mass Customization"

Beyond the web, there is tremendous opportunity in new products

. Design". Financing". Production". Distribution"

Product Innovation"

Crowdsourcing, Kickstarter, online stores are changing the way things are invented, made and sold

Asia do it for the kids.

Being in a emerging market has the enormous advantage of optimism

Advantages?!

What’s left in the West? We often hear about education…

I think it’s largely over-rated

But the “cheering culture” of the US is a very strong advantage

Whereas in France we like to criticize, and in Germany even make fun!

Pop Quiz!!

Yeah!

Who is this?

Freddie  Mercury  Born  Farrokh  Bulsara  (GujaraM:  ફારોખ  બ'સારા‌)  in  Zanzibar  

The Queen frontman grew up in India. He brought Bollywood style before we had a name for it!

How about this guy? Looks somewhat middle-eastern, eh?

Steve  Jobs  Son  of  Joanne  Carole  Schieble  &  Syrian  born  Abdulfatah  "John"  Jandali  (Arabic:   جندلي  عبدالفتاح �)  

Well, he’s half-Syrian by DNA

“China searches for the next Steve Jobs”

“Why the next Steve Jobs will be Asian”

If you read it, it’s for you."

I picked a couple of articles talking about Asia and Steve Jobs

China searches for the next Steve Jobs?"

= “China is coming and it scares us”"= “At least we are still more innovative”"

What is “China”?"What means “us” and “we”?"What is “innovative”?"

The FT one is mostly reinforcing US scares of China, and delusions of “owning” innovation

The United States is losing its near-monopoly on entrepreneurship by forcing its educated Indian and Chinese immigrants to return home.

Why the next Steve Jobs will be Asian"

= The next “Steve Jobs” is going to be US-educated"= Country of origin does not matter"

The Inc. one is mildly better, as it recognizes immigrants as a key source of US innovation

– “Steve  Jobs  lectured  Obama  on  how  much  easier  it  was  to  stat  a  business  in  China  than  in  the  United  States.”  

– “The  U.S.  near-­‐monopoly  on  entrepreneurship  is  over.  The  next  entrepreneur  to  lecture  a  President  may  well  do  it  in  Mandarin  or  Hindi.”  

Why the next Steve Jobs will be Asian"

= Importance of ease of starting a company!= Still stuck in the “national” mindset and numbers!

But it is still stuck in a weird mindset: US-educated foreign entrepreneurs will speak perfect English on top of Chinese, Hindi or whatever else is their country of origin.

4 Unusual Things I Noted"About Steve Jobs!

I found 4 things I believe were very formative for Steve Jobs

Calligraphy  (incl.  “Asian”)  formed  his  esthe<cs  

 “If  I  had  never  dropped  in  on  that  single  calligraphy  course  in  college,  the  Mac  would  have  never  had  mulIple  typefaces  or  proporIonally  spaced  fonts.”  

#1 Calligraphy"

Exposure to non-tech stuff, and esthetics

 He  went  on  a  long  trip  in  a  special  place  

 Jobs  lew  India  awer  staying  for  seven  months  and  returned  with  his  head  shaved  and  wearing  tradiMonal  Indian  clothing.  

#2 Trip to India"

A long special trip that helped open his eyes and expand his views

 He  experimented  with  new  percep<ons    

 "Doing  LSD  was  one  of  the  two  or  three  most  important  things  I  have  done  in  my  life.”  

 “Bill  Gates  would  be  a  broader  guy  if  he  had  dropped  acid  once.”  

#3 LSD"

If you don’t “drop acid”, try drawing or playing music by ear :-)

 He  meditated  a  lot  

 Jobs  also  was  a  serious  prac<<oner  of  Zen  Buddhism,  engaged  in  lengthy  meditaMon  retreats  at  the  oldest  Sōtō  Zen  monastery  in  the  US  and  maintained  a  lifelong  appreciaMon  for  Zen.  

#4 Meditation"

He took time to let his ideas calm down and stronger ones emerge

. Curiosity". Unusual experiences"

. Opportunistic". Minimalist comfort"

. Do!"

How to be a Steve Jobs (draft)"

I believe those are key elements to become a Steve Jobs

“Let a thousand Steve Jobs bloom!”!史蒂夫运动"

I actually think there will be not one but 1,000 Steve Jobs soon. Will we recognize them for what they are?

DayDeed.com will bring you love!"

benjamin@plus8star.com!or @benjaminjoffe!

Thanks!"

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