Responsible Innovation
What are the social implications behind your craft? What do you tell the young “strivers” who are interested in your industry, purely for the paycheck? In the bleeding shape our country is in, do you believe that students funneling into your field will advance our country?
These were the questions I asked a hedge fund manager yesterday during his presentation at my university.
I didn’t ask because I was trying to be a smart ass. I wasn’t being ignorant, or attempting to sound self-important. But, he is a hedge fund manager, with the ability to pool extremely large sums of money, with the intent to invest it as he chooses.
I asked him because global GDP is crashing. More importantly, innovation in the United States is failing.
I asked him because I feel responsible, and I care about the message that comes across from professionals to students. That’s one reason I write this blog. I’m graduating in a few months, and I’m leaving school with a mission.
I told him financial innovation isn’t innovation. Technical innovation, is innovation.
Does it even matter? Maybe it does, but that’s besides the point.
The hedge fund business isn’t going anywhere. The hedge fund business isn’t even solely to blame. I was just using the hedge fund business as an example, because I was given the golden opportunity to do so. But, I do think they lack awareness, especially when their agenda includes coming to speak with students about their arbitrage trading strategies, and how big their maintenance and performance fees are.
My point is that we’re currently in a paradigm shift, and the leaders of the business world haven’t realized it. Many of the business models which have proven successful in monetary terms in the past 30 years, are now failing with domino effects. They’ll be revived with innovation fueling smart growth, checking our priorities, tossing worthless affiliations, encouraging responsiveness, embracing new business models and by not being evil.
After I asked my questions, there was 30 seconds of awkward silence in room, filled with a few random mumblings. He began to answer–and then stopped. He asked me to repeat my question. He then answered, “I don’t know.”
I spoke with him afterward, and he told me he thought I was right. He claimed “that he didn’t know if he was part of the solution or the problem.”
He has the responsibility to be part of the solution, but I think he’s part of the majority who isn’t there. I don’t think it’s as black and white as being part of the “solution” or the “problem,” but it’s definitely worth asking yourself every now and then.
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