A different perspective - that’s what’s called for. It’s time to really try and get some positive thinking back into the press as well as into each of us active in the economy. Mind you that can be hard when your next assignment seems a distant prospect. There is nothing new under the sun and this economic cycle will swing back like it always does. I have been doing a lot of reading recently and found inspiration from many sources and I saw a parable in oil.

Herodotus of Greece lived in the 5th century and spoke about the ‘oil pits of Mesopotamia’ and travellers reported traces of oil over the years. So long before we really new what to do with it, we knew it existed. Someone subsequently stopped to work out what could be done with it and where else one might find it. Only when the Texan oil industry feared it might be peaking in the 1920’s as demand started to really take off, did they go drilling in Iraq and the rest is history. Economic recovery will come when entrepreneurs and organisations start looking at the untapped opportunities - those things that have been overlooked, dismissed or the doomsayers have written off as too difficult, too uninteresting, or too useless. And the parable ends with a psalm - Psalm 104, verse 15 third sentence, and Psalm 114, verse 8 second sentence: they read: ‘That he may bring out of the earth oil to make him a cheerful countenance… the flint stone into a springing well.’ So oil was known of well before Herodotus was a twinkle in his daddy’s eye and it only reached it’s potential in the 20th century.

Where’s today’s ‘oil’? Well the mood I find in Hong Kong is more up-beat than London. They are talking about what new opportunities this new world order brings. It is not the end of the world - they see it is a world of new possibilities.

So should we.

I am in the Far East again currently, hopefully drumming up work for you. Viewed from London, one might ask ‘why’? Isn’t it hopeless here too? Well despite what all the commentators are saying in the UK about a massive slowdown, China’s retail sales are exploding higher to their quickest rate in more than 9 years. Sales of jewellery are bounding up and demand for electrical goods is rocketing to new highs. Domestic consumption in China overall was skyrocketing recently as spendable income - the opposite of what the doom mongers were saying - was zooming higher, climbing more than 14% in the towns and improving 19% in the countryside. Retail sales continue to explode higher. January’s biggest retailers reported an impressive 24.5% year on year increase in retail sales, with nearly every category climbing quickly higher. Even Mercedes Benz saw car sales jump 11% in January, with its S-Class models going up an enviable 26%.

Yes, you read that right!

What’s happened since then to the Shanghai Index is that is has ‘whooped up’ too. So now the stock market there is the best market in the world once more. How come when we find ourselves in the worst state since the Great Depression? What about the tens of thousands of factories closing in China and the 50,000 employees a month losing their jobs that the press has reported? The truth is their bank lending is leaping up and their purchasing index had its second monthly rise and new orders including exports, jumped sharply. They are also taking advantage of current prices for natural resources to ensure their future supplies. Even though we have heard predictions that their growth would shrink to 6% or worse, I think there is a different outlook. That’s why I am in Hong Kong next week.

But this week I am in Bangkok. Thailand? What hope here? Well in Bangkok the building of new offices and flats continues at a hectic rate. Shoppers cram the famous shopping malls - they are shoulder to shoulder! I have already met several top Thai companies expanding across Asia and in some cases beyond, and very interested in your skills to help them do it - retail and supply chain skills particularly.

Stephen Goldman is the UAE again too. Have you read those stories about the cars being abandoned at Dubai airport? They are true - but mostly about people in the property and construction sectors. The finance sector is much more robust. And Dubai is only one of the Emirates - Sharjah and Abu Dhabi are in great shape!

We all need inspiring from time to time, especially in the face of adversity. Meet Jose Antonio Abreu, musical maestro of Venezuela. At his first rehearsal he expected 100 boys, but 11 turned up. He could have given up (many people might have said ‘this is clearly useless’) but instead he persevered. What he has created is staggering. The gulf between the rich and the poor in Venezuela is one of the worst in the world. Jose Antonio Abreu, an economist, musician, and reformer, founded El Sistema (”the system”) in 1975 to help Venezuelan kids take part in classical music. After 30 years (and 10 political administrations), El Sistema is a nationwide organization of 102 youth orchestras, 55 children’s orchestras, and 270 music centres — and close to 250,000 young musicians.

El Sistema uses music education to help kids from impoverished circumstances achieve their full potential and learn values that favour their growth. The talented musicians have become a source of national pride. Several El Sistema students have gone on to major international careers, including Gustavo Dudamel, soon to be the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the bassist Edicson Ruiz, who at 17 became the youngest musician ever to join the Berlin Philharmonic.

There is a simple concept behind Abreu’s work: for him an orchestra is first and foremost about togetherness, a place where children learn to listen to each other and to respect one another.

“Music has to be recognized as an … agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits the highest values — solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it has the ability to unite an entire community and to express sublime feelings.” José Antonio Abreu

Follow this link to hear his TED talk.

Each year the TED community makes 3 TED prizes. One to each of the worlds of Technology, Entertainment and Design. Jose Abreu won the entertainment prize and follow this link to see the realisation of his dream. It’s enough to move you and encourage you to pursue your own dreams. Get drilling for your ‘oil’.

David Jensen
Chief Executive