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On 8 December 2007, more than 600 Chinese students braved the bitter cold for an international forum on success at Beijing's National Library Hall. Delegates at the forum, hosted by the Cambridge University Education Without Borders (CUEWB) team, were lectured on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship by speakers from across the globe. As well as having passion and ambition, the students were told that success lay in a combination of vision, action, risk and flexibility. Education and social networking made success more likely.
While at the outset delegates could have been forgiven for thinking they had walked into the Spiderman movie - with the first two speakers stressing "with great power comes great responsibility" - more practical advice soon emerged on how to succeed in today's globalised world. Cultural diversity was a vital part of that success, since it created an adaptable and innovative environment, with "beneficial friction", which could give countries a "crucial competitive edge".
Cambridge professor Alan Barrell described a rapidly changing world in which organisations have become "more like networks than hierarchies", and where the "exchange of uncodified knowledge and an eruption of innovation" had caused technology to converge, helping industry. China and India - with two fifths of the world's population - would be increasingly central to the world economy, and would benefit by embracing education and taking risks to bridge the gap between creativity and the implementation of ideas.
"China is rapidly becoming a research economy. Around 900,000 Chinese students are studying abroad and will return with liberated minds," he said.
Barrell believed knowledge sharing would be a growing feature of the modern economy, and that such cooperation should be encouraged.
"Competition is not the only way."
Dr. Yuyan Liu, an entrepreneur and the headmaster of a private school in Beijing, suggested that students should act for their careers as early as possible and even, strikingly, shape their characters and personalities for their career success. Most interestingly from a foreign perspective, Dr. Liu pointed out that while the Chinese education system was systematic, theoretical and in-depth, it lacked dynamism and was not professionally related or international.
"The solution may be reform moving away from test- and university entrance-based, repetitive learning towards more innovative and experimental learning, nurturing critical thinking and problem-solving skills."
Japan's Koichi Ikegami believed the first half of the 21st Century would be "the Asian era", and said countries such as the US, UK, Germany and Japan had passed their respective peaks. Quoting Darwin, he suggested the species most responsive to change, rather than the strongest or the most intelligent, would survive, and that in the coming decades, firms would look to their employees to provide dynamism and innovation.
Other speakers included Myla Villanueva, Ernst and Young's female entrepreneur of the year 2004, Yousef Al Mulla, an associate on the Dubai government's executive council, and Rob Valli, an American entrepreneur and Cambridge PhD student. They said it was crucial for young entrepreneurs to overcome the fear of action by taking calculated risks, to be able to "manoeuvre on a dime", dealing with the chaos of the entrepreneurial environment, and to be humble.
"Never be afraid to hire people better than you, and look to angel investors to provide the seed capital in excess of the funds offered to you by family, friends and fools."
"Always have an exit strategy, but remember - you miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
The forum was sponsored by Nomura, Credit Suisse, and Marks & Clerk.
