Tuesday, January 20, 2015

HALLA TOMASDOTTIR: A FEMININE RESPONSE TO ICELAND'S FINANCIAL CRISIS + "THE ICELAND PATH"

Another informative talk via TED: Halla Tomasdottir talks about bringing feminine values into finance in, "A Feminine Response to Iceland's Financial Crisis" ...


In brief, AUDUR CAPITAL (which recently merged with another company) works around these guiding principles:

1. RISK AWARENESS: Don't invest in things you don't understand (i.e. complex derivatives). 
2. STRAIGHT TALK: Make sure everyone knows the risks, no matter how inconvenient. 
3. EMOTIONAL CAPITAL: Take a look at the people in the businesses where you're going to invest. Understand it's people, and not spreadsheets, that make and lose money. 
4. PROFIT WITH PRINCIPLES: Profits that have a positive social/environmental impact.

Incredibly enough, these are not the principles guiding Wall Street or America's financial giants today.

At the end Halla Tomasdottir talks about doing away with the mind-set that focuses on companies focusing on business on the one hand and while doing philanthropy with another. She calls for combining the two as a way of doing "good business" with a sustainable future.

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Finally, in the FYI Department, the path that Iceland's taken since the global market meltdown of 2008 differs from the path taken by the United States and Europe, on so many levels ...




- Mark 

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