The Center's News

Last Christmas I got a kitchen towel as a gift which said “2020 will be the year” – what was meant as a positive encouraging message for good news to come turned into a rather eventful and world-changing year in which rapid response to the unexpected became the rule for many of us.

Would you have sailed with Columbus or rather waited for the review on TripAdvisor first? There was no review or fallback plan for what we experienced this year. We were ripped out of our thought-to-be-safe and secured context and thrown right onto the Santa Maria. We were asked to navigate, quickly realizing that we can control ship and sail, but not wind and waves. But we worked with what we had. And it is in these moments of storm and perpetual crisis that we find out what we are able to accomplish and excel at.

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On Sunday I did my first train ride with a mask, on Monday I got on the last flight to escape from Paris to the country side before lockdown which happened on Tuesday. How the world has changed just within two weeks or even 48 hours…

Two developments have shaken the world over the last 12 months: firstly, the urge to finally become aware of how we treat our planet, our context in a larger sense if we intend to live here for a while and leave something for next generations – the climate crisis. Secondly, – the necessity and, so far, helplessness to manage a virus of an unknown kind that threatens human health – the coronavirus crisis. The big difference: the climate crisis is less immediate, effects will not be felt by those who are making decisions today, but by their children, whereas the coronavirus crisis is real-time action happening in front of our eyes. The non-response to the abuse and impact on our context and at the same time the action (although delayed) to an immediate threat to the human race is easily explained by the classical insurance phenomenon. Why spend money on something or make sacrifices to take precaution for an event in the future that might or might not occur and potentially not affect the actor who has expenses or reduced welfare as he or she is taking precautions for such an insecure future event?

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Do you dare to make a wish? Yes, a wish. A desire or hope for something you are not sure that you will get it or that it will happen. Unconditional. Forward-looking. No back-up. Your personal wish.
 
I’ve been thinking about this lately as a great year comes to an end and the holiday season is in full swing. At least in the Western world we live in a time in which many wishes get fulfilled – it almost feels like an “entitlement” when you listen to children negotiating Christmas presents with their parents and threatening to move out if they do not get the newest iphone… it used to be magic to make a wish list, dreams and desires that grew from personal needs and experiences instead of complying with a status-driven adulthood society that is in constant fear of missing out (so-called FOMO).

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The Center’s 8th Business Forum is happy history – thanks to our sponsors, speakers, participants, a great team, a beautiful venue, food for thought and delight. You will see many happy faces because it is with joy and passion that ideas and knowledge are exchanged among people. Some impressions of what it felt like to be there are online:
 
Virtual Broadcasting

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The last two weeks flew by with preparations for our 8th Global Business Forum “Money and people – the currencies of healthcare” and inspiring meetings with our global partners in Germany, the US and Switzerland. New Focused Forums in Madrid, Los Angeles and New York are on our horizon while leaves are starting to fall in the City of Lights and summer sun is still enlightening our spirits.

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Vive la rentrée – back to school – in France. I hope you enjoyed your summer time; you’re recharged, revitalized with new ideas, new thoughts… It’s a bit like a New Years Day, but a much better one that does not take place in cold and grey January. In September, we still get some warm and sunny days. It’s time for new plans and goals – everything seems possible and you feel the optimism like a wave along the river Seine. I do not literally have a new backpack filled with sharp new pencils and exercise books, but mentally and emotionally I do.

We’re kicking off the “New Year” with our 8th Global Business Forum “Money and people – the currencies of healthcare” to be held on September 11-13, 2019 at the Columbia Global Center in Paris.

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Summer is in full swing and most of us have left the big cities to breathe some fresh air and relax in the countryside. The Italians call it “la villegiatura” – going to the country villages, ideally their summer homes. Germans call it “Sommerfrische” which denotes the recovery time of townies and their “Landlust” (desire for the countryside) in summer since the 19th century. Whether you stay in town or pursue la villegiatura below are a few more reads for you before getting back to work.

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As you might be taking off for summer I’d like to share some summer reads with you below as well as food for thought & action on our upcoming forum. Today the spotlight is on Ralf Däinghaus, CEO of medAspis and founder and former CEO of docmorris who we are excited to welcome to our 8th Global Business Forum “Money and people – the currencies of healthcare” to be held on September 11-13, 2019 at the Columbia Global Center in Paris. In his keynote he will talk about how he balanced customer needs, market opportunity and regulatory challenges when he was founding Europe’s first online pharmacy. What was perceived by traditional pharmacies as a nuisance as it disrupted traditionally well-established delivery channels turned out to revolutionize drug provision in Europe.

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Time is limited – allocating our personal and financial resources is key. Whether you are running a business, a household or your own show you might have found yourself in the situation of reflection whether you should dedicate more time to increase the available resources (“make money”) or manage the existing budget and take care of operations (“manage your business”). If you’re raising funds for a healthcare start-up this means balancing interests between shareholders and the constraints of a start-up reality. We are excited that Angelo Moesslang, CEO of InGeneron, Boston, will provide insights into his daily business life in his keynote.

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Have you recently gone somewhere where you have never been? Have you talked to somebody who gave you a new perspective? Acquired new knowledge that changed your perception? I went to Odense, Denmark, recently to visit a greenhouse. As a hobby gardener and German quality aficionado I learned that quality standards in our Northern European neighbor country are even higher and stricter. No pesticides. No artificial anything. Chapeau!

The plants being cultivated in the beautiful countryside of Odense are cannabis plants. Since we have been researching the medical applications of cannabis for the past year, we were interested in visiting one of the major producers and were impressed. For us medical cannabis is one innovation among other drugs, devices and management approaches in healthcare. Therefore, we invited Spectrum Therapeutics to join our 8th Global Business Forum “Money and people – the currencies of healthcare” to be held on September 11-13, 2019 at the Columbia Global Center in Paris and are very excited that they will become a sponsor of our Annual Forum.

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