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Today, after the ruthless financial crisis of 2008 and the covid-19 pandemic, many people think our economies – and even democracies – are in an existential crisis and that a radical systemic change is urgently required. I fully agree. I even think this crisis already started brewing in the 1980s.
But I am also convinced that we are in a successful process of addressing the crisis. And the purpose of this website is to inspire you to take action, to contribute to the transition we´re in.
We cannot predict the future, but we can shape it to a significant degree.
Allow me to share with you what Anita Roddick – founder of The Body Shop – once told me: “if you think you´re too small to make a difference, you never slept with a hungry mosquito in your bedroom”…
Anita Roddick – photograph: Gemma Levine/Getty Images
So, yes, I fully agree that there is a systemic crisis these days, but at the same time I do firmly bear in mind that the Chinese word for “crisis” consists of two characters: “danger, threat” [left] and “opportunity” [right].
besides this opening and a blog page, my website contains 4 major parts:
In this part, I’ll provide a very concise briefing of some of the colossal self-created challenges we face:
Exponential population growth, obscene inequality, environmental pollution, seriously threatening resource depletion, climate change, biodiversity loss, and finally a subject that receives little [or even no] general public attention: the still existing systemic risks in the global financial sector.
In this part I share three personal reflections:
First, how – on a geological time scale – the human species has evolved at a fiercely rapid pace and that such a fragile animal can cause so much harm. Next, I will discuss the importance of choosing our economic paradigm. And finally, I reflect [on several main issues] on what the neo-liberal economic paradigm has brought to the USA, our so-called “inspiring example and keeper of world peace”.
This part is the heart of my website because it covers the three title elements:
“Redefining Progress”, is about the necessary reformulation of what progress in society means. Then: “Redefining Capitalism” on the urgently needed transition to a just and sustainable economic paradigm. And finally “Redefining Business” is about a completely different vision of the objectives of a business organization, giving concrete substance to the redefinition of capitalism.
The fourth part deals with the present transition to a new economic paradigm:
About innovation frontrunners, entrepreneurial personalities with great perseverance and resilience. Their opponents will first ignore them, then ridicule them, and finally, fight them with all available means. But when these frontrunners find themselves in tune with the spirit of the times, massive support forces are released, and then there is no way to stop the transition…
This website is a personal narrative, based on 50 years experience in international business, non governmental organisations and consulting practise. My guest lectures at the Institute of Environmental Sciences [Leiden University, The Netherlands] are derived from it.
Ludo van Oyen – Brussels, 2021
Some photos are taken from the web. If you think your photo is used and you disagree, please send me an e-mail and I will remove it from this site.