As I’m writing my Christmas letter the night of winter solstice and in the light of a still very bright almost full moon, I can’t help but be optimistic that as the days are getting longer again the world will find a common sense of operation. This maybe utterly forward-looking while governments are discussing next lockdowns and we do not know what kind of sense or direction exactly the world is taking, but the truth is: we must find that modus operandi and adjust our expectations because this pandemic will not be the last one and there exist other more unmanageable challenges to tackle such a ..read more

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 w ..read more

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 threate ..read more

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 As we are harvesting the results of the 8th forum we are already planning for several focused forums on various topics around the world. Building bridges between countries, professions and organizations will be our motto for 2020 ..read more

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. In the weeks before our annual forum interactions with participants, speakers and moderators become a regular routine. And tonight, we finally kick off our 8th get-together at the Columbia University Global ..read more

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 ..read more

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. Paris is empty these days, but beautiful as always. And we are busy preparing our 8th Global Business Foru ..read more

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 onl ..read more

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 insig ..read more

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 magi ..read more