Anders Indset - Philosophy@Work

Thank you to the following patrons for their generous support of this book.

Andrea Allocco

Michelle Besier

Prince Boadu

Christian B

Jean-Marie Buchilly

Benjamin Buescher

Teodora Mona Croitoru

Sandeep Das

Guillermo De Haro

Nils Dudenhoefer

Signe Gammeltoft Frantzen

Hans Gallis

Jared Gil

Anna Grres

Simone Gross

Martin Heimers

Joern Herseth

Michael Hu

Barbara Hunter-Lemke

Hannah Indset

Jon Indset

Nikolaus Isele

Sanjin Kanesic

Michael Lefrancois

Mirja Linke

Matteo Lunardon Mr.

Reinhold W. Lutz

Lothar Mayer

Jan Mironiuk

Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez

Allan Rahn

Yannick Reiss

Benjamin Roh

Arnaldo Romanos-Hofer

op t Roodt Rudi

Bjarne Rugelsjoen

Professor Peter Sachsenmeier

Jim Savitz

Roger Spitz

Bridget Trusty

Olivier Van Duren

Ute Wellenberg

Martin Whitworth

Beatrice Willmers

Frank Windau

With special thanks to Zigurat Global Institute of Technology for helping to make this book happen.

When I first started on this journey of pairing philosophy and business, more than a decade ago, it was all about building bridges and trying to rethink philosophical concepts in light of the twenty-first century.

In retrospect, it has been about what I now describe as practical applied philosophy. I very much resonate with theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, who said, If I cannot build it, I cannot understand it. In philosophical terms, he was rejecting a theoretical and an academic approach in favour of bringing philosophy to life. In other words, philosophy is something we do, something that can be applied to a practical purpose of improving our lives in order to reach a higher understanding and provide a pathway to acting by reason.

My passion for philosophy has followed me since my early childhood. The art of being wrong. That genuine curiosity and eagerness to understand everything which was not, however, always immediately relatable to my life. But it has helped me take a different perspective and to see things holistically. The search for wisdom and the willingness to share and grow together are essential values that can help give some kind of meaning to our wonderful journey to nowhere.

Philosophy@Work does not attempt to cover every aspect of the topics it raises, but rather to provide the spark and the inspiration to think anew about philosophy in the context of doing business. Business leaders in the twenty-first century must have, on a fundamental level, a sense of curiosity and an open mind.

This book is a starting point for taking philosophy to work seeing and learning how philosophical methods and thinking can be applied to the business world. It is a collection of articles and interviews by some of the leading business, leadership and/or management thinkers in the world today. It features intellectuals from the field of business thinking who have welcomed philosophical concepts and applied them to the world of business. It is a book to motivate the reader to take a different perspective and to be open to expanding their own models and to free themselves from what I refer to as our Selbstverstndlichkeiten ingrained ways of thinking. The reader should feel they can revisit what they take for granted today the metaphors and terminologies that are anxiously and blindly used in everyday life without questioning.

The first part is Sparking Personal Development. As interdependencies and collaborative approaches become more important and as projects drive companies, the role of the team member also requires ongoing learning. The well-being, self-reflection and growth of a leader are essential fields of all modern organisations. The second part covers various aspects of the Art of Leadership and how to become a leader of change. In the third section we take a look at how to cope with the Forces of Change the underlying mechanisms impacting the world and driving external impulses for organisations. The fourth and final section of the book examines aspects of Applied Philosophy and how it is brought to life. How can philosophy be made part of action and how can it impact how we do business? Each of these four sections feature contributions from a range of leading thinkers and interviews with pioneers in their field.

Contributors

The contributions include an insightful interview with Megan Reitz, the professor of leadership and dialogue at Hult Ashridge Executive Education, UK, and a Zoom session in the Canadian mountains with Henry Mintzberg , the recipient of the lifetime achievement award from Thinkers50 for his long-term impact on the way people think about and practice management. There are chapters from the likes of international branding expert Martin Lindstrom, who has led deep research into the minds of buyers, applying insights from neuroscience to develop the concept of buyology. You will also learn from Anil Gupta and Haiyan Wang, global strategists and experts on entrepreneurship and the transformational rise of emerging markets. The executive president of IE University, Spain, and winner of the first ever Thinkers50 founders award, Santiago Iiguez de Onzoo, brings If You Want to Be a Good Leader, You Had Better Understand Philosophy. Dorie Clark, self-reinvention and branding expert, shares thoughts on how to take control of your professional life and make an impact on the world and Thinkers50 hall of fame expert in strategy, marketing, and pricing, Hermann Simon, writes on The Philosophy of Price. The worlds leading business coach, Marshall Goldsmith, together with many others, share their reflections on how they relate to philosophy in their particular field.

Philosophy@Work will give you a way to access new fields of interest by learning new leadership concepts for the twenty-first century. It will inspire you to approach personal development in a new way and teach you how to cope with the underlying forces of change by getting a better understanding of the world your own, personal philosophy of the world, as defined in cognitive sciences through a German word, Weltanschauung .

Undressing the (business) world

If change from a world of potentiality and infinity meet
a system of finitude, not only do tensions arise, but
fundamental changes in organised human life will follow.

Davos, January 2020, and the sun is shining. I find myself amongst the financial elite and a young generation of changemakers who have been invited to address and discuss the new world with the other attendees at the World Economic Forum. There is something of a new spirit in the air. There are the annual discussions about how to continue along the path of unlimited growth and prosperity, but these have been joined by real concerns about the sustainability of such a world. Such talks have long been on the table, but the young are now demanding change and the elite seems to finally be taking action.

Inviting young changemakers actually seems to be more than just a gimmick to get media attention. There is a willingness to take on the most pressing challenge for humanity how to stave off ecological collapse while still trying to build a prosperous world; to find a way to unite economy and ecology. Philanthropists and their family offices are talking about impact investments and sustainable technologies and corporate leaders are striving for greater balance and more stakeholder management. In new, major investments, the concept of making the switch to a perfect, circular economy a sustainable world is making noise at this fiftieth anniversary summit in the Swiss Alps. The focus is not on prosperity for the elite but on shared prosperity.