Designers w/o Borders September 30, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Business, Companies of the future, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship, Globalisation, Innovation, Thought leadership.Tags: Design, Ideafarms, India, Indo-Dutch collaboration, Industrial Design, Industrial Designers, Innovation, International Design, New Business Models, Sunil Malhotra, Sustainability
4 comments
World Trade Centre, Rotterdam, 25th September 2009. Indo-Dutch collaboration summit focused on Industrial Design. Hmmm … (Design Crossover).
-
- A view of the audience
-
- That’s me on the right!
-
- Raijmakers & Oberdorf
Why they invited me to speak is still somewhat of a mystery considering I dropped off the Industrial Design radar towards the end of the last millennium. I guess it could’ve been because my company, Ideafarms, has been able to maintain a growing relationship between India and Europe over the last 8 years through projects and partnerships with Dutch and German corporations.
I’ve never been a champion of networking – I’ve actually often criticised some of my friends for using networking to get ahead – but am quite overwhelmed having been in the midst of some of the most ‘conscious’ designers of today. Jeroen 
Raijmakers of Philips and Jos Oberdorf of NPK Design are inspiring to say the least. I’m grateful to Ruchita Puri for the opportunity to meet them at the event.
From whatever was presented, it looks like good design can be really good business. There’s a case to be made out for a design collaboration without borders. Couple of good reasons here …
1. European design reflects high quality, the idiom being minimalistic and functional. Whereas India’s design sensibilities are more embellished. Their combination will raise the aesthetic appeal without compromising design values.
2. Pure economic tenets come into play when we see the sheer number of people both on the supply side (design talent is plenty in India) and the demand side (India is emerging as one of the largest markets). Leveraging the ‘great Indian talent pool’ is an opportunity.
3. The life sensibilities of India’s cultural make-up have always been in the mould of sustainability, something the world has woken up to only recently. Add to this the rich craft-based traditions and you have a universal design paradigm that’s as powerful as Buddhism.
Jump into this conversation folks. You don’t want to be left out. Really!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=5c9b71d6-328c-43a8-aefe-db2b307052ba)
What do Birth control and Literacy have to do with Climate Change August 11, 2009
Posted by Sunil Malhotra in Innovation, Nature, Sustainability, Thought leadership, Wisdom of the leaders, climate change.Tags: Western Thought, Capitalism, Sustainability, political innovation, climate change, Nature, Sustainable retreat, United States, Greed, inconvenient truth, Carbon footprint, holier than thou, population, literacy, Birth control, Arrogance, religious fanaticism, religious conversion
1 comment so far
Image via Wikipedia
Now that you’ve fallen prey to my catchy title, don’t be fooled - the connections are not so remote as they appear at first glance. For those who have guessed, don’t spoil the fun.
Going by all known accounts, research information and the seemingly urgent political summits on the horizon – no points for guessing – climate change is being caused and accelerated only by one single species, humankind. So if stricter birth laws could be enforced, less human beings would be allowed to come into our planet and therefore would do less damage. (This would not hold if you included investment bankers and Nobel economists as being a part of humankind).
Here’s a sample from my proposed enactment -
“The Birth Control and Literacy for Climate Change Act, 2009″.
Article 12: Whereas the minority religions of the world seek to remove all obstacles (including, but not limited to, the outdated institution of marriage) for bringing into this world;
(a) by conscious, unconscious or accidental act of momental ecstasy, and(b) performed between two or more persons of same (Section 377 of IPC) or opposite sexes; and
(c) through physical or artifical means,
such an occurence may be permitted a maximum of 2 times in the lifetime of each of the persons involved, jointly or severally without exception.
And as for my literacy angle, it’s simple enuff … really! (more…)
