The Rothschilds

In the stakeholder module today, Prof. Jeannet told a story and asked as to think about how the world changes, and how the star of tomorrow can quickly become the orphan of next year.

The Rothschild, the prominant European banking family 200 years ago, had six sons and realized that Frankfurt was no longer big enough for his sons to develope. The family decided to send the six sons to six locations that they saw as the most promising business oppertunities in the world: London, Naples, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Frankfurt. So, what was the hit rate on successfully predicting how the world was going to shape? 2 out of 6 cities became the commercial center of the world. Not too bad. Or?

Pro. Jeannet then asked us to pick 3 cities where we would put our children. Answers ranged from Sao Paolo, Dubai, Sydney, Singapore, London, San Francisco, New York, Lima, Shanghai, Dares Salam to Bangalore. (I chose Sao Paolo, Paris, and San Francisco.) Where would you put yours? And how good would the choices seem 10, 20, 30 years from now?