Our speaker last week was Roberto Matus who is the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Chile— a country that is approximately 2,600 miles from north to south along the Pacific Ocean. About 90% of its population lives in its central valleys and most of the transport between countries is by air because there are no southern winds down the 2,600 mile Pacific Coast line to transport boats. Thanks to good guidance, Chile exports most of its grapes, berries, nectarines and peaches, and is the 3rd largest country exporting salmon (behind Norway and Canada)..

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Claes Ryn was our breakfast speaker last week and used the opportunity to speak about his new novel, A Desperate Man which is already out as an ebook at Amazon and will soon be available also as a traditional hardcover book. The novel is a suspenseful political and psychological thriller as well as a serious literary work. It paints a picture of the state of America that some might find disturbing. The milieus are Washington, D.C., Paris, and Charleston, S.C. and Claes suggested that a good novel with real characters can tell you more about life, leave a more permanent mark than many factually bases biographies or history books. Claes speculated that this suspenseful story might convey some important things better to the educated general public than his more philosophical works. He pointed out that writing is more taxing work and that if there is interest in the club, he would be willing to sign copies of A Desperate Man at a future club meeting.

Lasse Syversen was last week’s breakfast speaker and presented a picture show that depicted his journey from 1950 (his birthdate) toward 2030. His first job was as an office equipment salesman, and his first computer had less memory than today’s watches. Programs were stored on magnetic cards. In 1980 he went to work for General Electric (where he got his first mobile phone!).

If today’s leaders are asked to list the “megatrends” that are shaping the business world of tomorrow, three are likely to top most lists:

• One is the accelerating shift in Exonomic power from West to East. Specifically, the “EX” refers to “the “unmeasured, perhaps even ’immeasurable’ forces that are in economics.”
• Another is financial-market instability and recession, at least for those in the world’s more developed economies.
• The third is Technological progress.

The world will get to seem smaller, that’s for sure. It will be difficult to maintain borders and also to know where people are. Ultimately, though, the technology will never be more effective than the people who use it.

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