Joel Kurtzman

Author, Advisor on Global Competitiveness and Risk

BIG IDEAS

• Global Edge: Navigating the Global Landscape
  With globalization a reality, companies no longer have a choice about whether to do business across borders. But it contains hidden risks-and firms need strategies and tactics for recognizing and managing those risks. Drawing on Global Edge, his most recent book, Joel Kurtzman presents breakthrough tools for better managing the hard-to-see perils of going global.
  
  Based on a decade of fieldwork with companies and governments, Kurtzman presents a new way to anticipate, analyze, and manage hidden global business risks. In an age when a systematic understanding of global risk is still in its infancy, he takes the subject from the realm of academic interest and plants it squarely in management circles.
• We Always Prepare for the Wrong Thing
  Usually, it’s the media that’s the last to know. As a former journalist at The New York Times, Joel Kurtzman learned that what’s printed— or presented on TV—is what’s already past. The future can often be foretold, but not from the usual sources. It takes digging into what’s really going on—which usually means numbers and it always means money. While everyone in the media worried about Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chavez, they missed that Venezuela’s U.S. based oil company—Citgo—which is run by a Chavez appointee, contributed big dollars to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and has given money to a number of public schools. So what should you pay attention to? A picture of Chavez with his arm around Fidel Castro, or money given for hurricane relief? It’s too easy to say “both,” but you can spot probabilities and place bets based knowing how to interpret the facts.
• Opacity: the Hidden Cost of Doing Business
  The work Joel does on global risk says “too often we worry about the wrong things.” Companies spend big to buy insurance against coup d’etats and nationalizations but these happen rarely and when they do, they’re usually cheap. The real costs—and problems—for business comes from the small things that make for an opaque economy: legal systems that don’t work, corrupt government officials, poor accounting standards. Since the media doesn’t cover these things, most companies ignore them. But it’s at their own peril. Joel says it’s the little things that really steal a globalizing company’s profits.
• Money is Only One Kind of Capital
  There are really six types of capital: 1. human capital, 2. intellectual capital, 3. social capital, 4. financial capital, 5. infrastructure capital (which always depreciates) and, 6. personal capital. Together these are what create value and wealth. Specifically, the first four types of capital create wealth. The fifth type dissipates some of the wealth that’s created. And, the sixth type enables an individual to travel through the world’s value creating networks. Without personal capital an individual is just an individual. But when personal capital is high, people listen. All of these types of capital can receive investment and as a result increase value. Inputs and outputs can be measured and so can the wealth they generate.

SNAPSHOT BIO

Joel Kurtzman is a noted author and advisor to leading organizations around the world in the areas of social capital, governance, and assessing and managing global risk. His expertise is highlighted by his long, successful career forecasting global events, from oil-price shocks to the dollar’s ups and downs. Joel’s vantage point in understanding and relating business implications comes from the fact that he has held both positions of senior strategic business leader and journalist responsible for reporting and translating business issues. Whether presenting to business leaders or government officials, Joel presents his ideas with one overarching concept in mind: provide thought leadership that creates value and sustainable growth.

A Closer Look at Joel

FOCUS AREAS
What's on Joel's current research agenda?

According to Joel, “Many economists and analysts focus on the large, disruptive, low-frequency risks to global business, such as wars and natural disasters. I’m more interested in the small-scale, high-frequency risks to business and impediments to capital flows, such as flawed legal, accounting and financial systems, weak economic policy, and corruption. These are the problems that really cost businesses money! They’re also the areas where companies are least prepared. We’ve created the Opacity Index, which systematically gauges such costs across global economies and countries and helps companies figure out the best strategies for globalization.”

ENGAGEMENTS
How have other organizations utilized Joel's expertise, and what's ahead on his schedule?

Joel has collaborated extensively with Microsoft including moderating and speaking at six Microsoft CEO Summits, which take place at the Microsoft campus and at the Gates residence; developing Microsoft’s summit for CEOs of Latin American banks; presenting at many Microsoft EMEA meetings; speaking about risk at Microsoft’s CFO summit; presenting to its Governmental Leaders Summit; and presenting at several internal meetings on the topic of social capital.

In addition, Joel continues to present to and work with leading organizations around the world advising them in many areas including social capital, governance, and assessing and managing global risk.

Organizations include:

• Aramark
• Brodeur Worldwide International Bar Association
• Davos
• The Wharton School
• Several leading financial institutions
• A global law firm
• A global accounting firm
• A number of boards of directors of public companies

SPHERE OF INFLUENCE
Who shapes Joel's thinking and inspires his work?

Peter Drucker and R. Buckminster Fuller were greatly influential to Joel.

In addition, the philosopher Ervin Laszlo, with whom he wrote several books, has proven a source of inspiration.

To energize and constantly challenge his thinking, Joel can very often be found reading outside of his field, specifically history and philosophy.

RECOMMENDED READING
What's on Joel's must-read list?

• Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilich, by Gary R. Jahn
• The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon
• The Odyssey, by Homer, Robert Fitzgerald translation
• The Meno Dialogue, by Plato
• The Insect Societies, by Edward O. Wilson
• The Revolution in Corporate Finance, by Liza H. Jacobs and Donald H. Chew Jr.
• Common Sense, by Thomas Paine
• Relevance Lost, The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting, by H. Thomas Johnson and Robert S. Kaplan
• Against the Gods, The Remarkable Story of Risk, by Peter L. Bernstein

Currently on his bedside table:
The Production of Space, by Lefebvre & Nicholson-Smith; “Republic of Fear, The Inside Story of Saddam’s Iraq, Al-Khalil, The New Yorker magazine, and always a book that has some spiritual message.

MIND FUEL
Which blogs, web sites, and industry events does Joel tap into to feed his mind and fuel his creativity?

A former owner, Joel spent a good deal of time on Townhall.com, a politically focused online community whose mission is to inform, empower and mobilize citizens for political change. Today, he mostly looks to news sites to fuel his thinking including CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, The New York Times, and the Financial Times.

OUTREACH
What are Joel's pressing questions, and on which topics does he seek your feedback?

Joel is fascinated by China, its future and its plans. He considers it a high risk country, but one that has a chance of dodging the bullet, given that it has $1 trillion in foreign reserves.

He is also fascinated by the Arab Middle East and visits it often. He has been doing so for 20 years and has a number of prominent friends in the region.