From the monthly archives:

November 2015

Adapting to Climate Change

November 27, 2015

Climate Change is upon us and we have to adapt to survive it. Now more than ever we need creative thinking and innovation in order to adapt. What is the real situation and what has to be done? The video below explains what is done in one of the most affected countries, Bangladesh. Adapting to […]

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Concrete Innovation

November 26, 2015

Today when we say that something is “concrete”, we mean that it exists in reality, something capable of being perceived by the senses, as opposed to abstractions. I had a first hand impression of something concrete last Sunday, when I visited an ancient Roman quarry together with my son. I was struck by how immense […]

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Cities in Numbers–How Patterns of Urban Growth Change the World

November 25, 2015

Manchester based The Guardian has been around for close to 200 years, and in recent time the newspaper has developed an excellent website. Along with Financial Times, The Atlantic and The Economist, it has become one of my favourite news sources. As many newspapers have conformed to provide news and not analysis, The Guardian has […]

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Emerging and Frontier Markets Investment Perspectives

November 23, 2015

Today I attended a full-day workshop in Monaco, about the current state of emerging and frontier markets. The workshop was led by Dr. Marcus Goncalves from Nichols College, and it was not about investment ideas or recommendations. Instead, it was about analysing the fundamental global macroeconomic forces and trends which enables us to better understand […]

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Uppsala Place Brand Analysis

November 18, 2015

A team from Bearing has over the past two months worked on analysis and recommendations for an updated place brand for the city of Uppsala in Sweden, and today we delivered our report. The assignment has been a follow-on from a strategy  analysis project which we are working on for Uppsala county and Uppsala city […]

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Finland’s new ’emoji diplomacy’

November 9, 2015

Finland made international headlines this week with its release of 30 country-branding emojis, in an unique and typically quirky twist on regular promotion efforts. Said to reflect aspects of the Finnish national character, the list includes a sauna emoji,  a Nokia ‘brick phone’ emoji, and the ‘headbanger’ emoji, which is the particular favourite of Petra […]

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Is China Leading Global Innovation?

November 4, 2015

China is investing heavily in research and development and rapidly increasing high-technology output. This is happening as the country is passing through a challenging transition, as the labour-force expansion and surging investment that propelled three decades of growth is now weakening. This is a natural stage in the country’s economic development. Yet it raises questions […]

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Debate on the Fourth Industrial Revolution

November 2, 2015

In The World Economic Forum Abu Dhabi session on October 27, there was an interesting debate about the fourth industrial revolution.  Humankind is at the threshold of a new industrial revolution driven by the confluence of a staggering range of emerging technologies. How will politics, economies and societies be transformed? The participants were: Justine Cassell, […]

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