Last week I finished reading a biography of Elon Musk, a positive maverick I've been following for decades. Elon attended Bryanston High School 12 years after I matriculated there, so our shared boyhood in South Africa gives me some insight into what makes him tick, I think. Elon is what we call a "Positive Maverick"- he wants to make the world a better place through his businesses and projects, whether it is his sleek Tesla all-electric sports and family cars, or his mission to set up a Mars colony and provide satellite launching services through Space-X. Although I believe his Mars mission should wait until we have ensured a thriving future for planet Earth first, I do admire his ability to make the seemingly impossible, possible. Much like Apple's Steve Jobs, Microsoft's Bill Gates, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Musk has managed to disrupt traditional ways of doing things with a new model that leapfrogs over the current industry incumbents. Whether its computing and software, retailing, internet search, social media or transport, these positive mavericks have built platforms that deliver a great deal more value than their predecessors. And perhaps the world will be a better place for that. I say perhaps, as there are some aspects of disruptive business models that can also have negative social and environmental effects, especially in the short-term. If we are going to keep global warming well below two degrees and live on a one planet environmental footprint this century, we need massive breakthroughs, and there is no doubt that these positive mavericks are doing their bit. Just as surely as mobile telephone networks mean that developing countries do not need to invest in fixed telephone and data lines, so too do solar, wind and biofuel renewable energy technologies ensure that they can bypass coal, gas and oil for their energy needs. Meanwhile, in the developed world, those technologies are transforming the way we do things, and making us more sustainable, if not thriveable. Of course, the first thing you will notice is that all of the positive mavericks who are experts at leapfrog I've talked about so far, are all white men who live on the West Coast of America. Though they mostly began from humble beginnings, these six men have accumulated some of the world's largest fortunes for themselves and their investors over the past two decades. Leapfrog is a very profitable business indeed, but also a very risky one, and for every Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos there are millions of struggling software companies and etailers, as well as failed social media sites and now defunct search engines. While the seven now famous icons above are the most successful examples of those who disrupt industries through technology-based platforms with radical business models, there are also a huge number of leapfrog champions whose success is socially and environmentally motivated. For example, here is a composite photo of the "Disruptive 25" who are helping make our cities more liveable and thriveable. These 25 disruptive leaders were celebrated last year for acting with urgency and imagination, putting their own personal capital on the line to challenge the status quo, working to take down the barriers that cause racial disparities and embrace the responsibility to question, collaborate and lead for lasting and meaningful change. The changes we need to see in cities won’t happen by luck or chance, but by a different type of leadership. These 25 leaders represent a diversity of sectors, roles and experiences. What they share, however, is a deep-seated impatience with the status quo, a willingness to act and to bring others along with them. Between the global giants of platform leapfrog and the local champions of city leapfrog, there are millions of leapfrog artists around the world still to be discovered. A good place to see these positive mavericks in action is at the many conferences around the world focused on sustainability and innovation. For example, I've spoken at Sustainable Brands conferences in America and Europe, where I've met some amazing leapfrog artists, whose breakthrough ideas are activating brighter futures in dozens of countries around the world. What is often called "sustainable innovation" has taken off in the past few decades in developing countries, building on "bottom-of-the pyramid", lean business models that are able to deliver healthcare and surgery at one-tenth the cost in the developed world; or mobile phone services that cost less than a western cappuccino a month in India; or micro-cars that cost less than a month's salary of an average western worker. Here is a pictogram showing just how rapidly these kind of leapfrogs are taking place: The Leapfrog Investors Club is scanning all of these developments with its "Good Cube", looking for those organisations and investments that are capable of generating True Future Value for multiple stakeholders and investors. In my next blog post I will go into more detail about True Future Value and the Good Cube, to explain how we are able to spot the successful leapfrog artists of the future.
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Dr Robin Lincoln Wood -
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