Hesham Hafez Presents "The Global Innovator" in Moscow
On July 6th, Hesham Hafez presented his book,?The Global Innovator,?for the first time in Moscow, Russia, at the Unagrande Business Books Business Club Meeting, hosted at the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo.
The meeting was like a scene out of a futuristic science fiction film. In a white room, glowing with purple accents and filled to the brim with a panel of Russia’s leading entrepreneurs, public figures, innovators, inventors, authors, and professors alike, Hesham Hafez took to the floor in futuristic garb to present not only his book,?The Global Innovator,?but an insider’s look at the changing landscape of innovation in the pandemic age.
The meeting kicked off with a riveting speech by Unagrande Company’s founder Alexey Martynenko, whose memorable references to cheese in the midst of his speech had the audience laughing jovially. Eyes glued to the speaker at the front of the room, the audience members in the room, as well as those watching virtually from across the globe, were magnetized by his compelling words and heartfelt praise for?The Global Innovator.
Then, with an introduction like no other, Dr. Hafez took to the stage to offer critical insights for global innovators and business leaders in the wake of the pandemic, as well as an insider’s look at his book,?The Global Innovator,?coming to shelves near you in September (English version) and October (Arabic version) of this year.
Pronounced with passion, Dr. Hafez’s grand personality owned the room the moment he began his speech. An innovator and orator at heart, Dr. Hafez took his audience on a journey through his upcoming book,?The Global Innovator,?beginning with his motivation for writing it. “I am not actually Zuckerberg, or Gates or?anyone.?I am one of the 99.999% of the world. If I write a book, it will relate to the normal people like me,” he offered as one of the main reasons for writing his book.
He went on to guide his audience through a look at innovation and a modern-day definition for it. “Every one of you, actually, is innovative.?Everyone.?Because you observe. You think. You create value,” Hafez spoke. He introduced The Innovation Model, a model he crafted through years of research determining how civilizations through space and time have created, maintained, or lost their innovative societies.
“Let’s encourage free thinking, liberal thinking, and?please,?get out of tradition. Yes, stay with the values, but encourage your children, your co-workers, your nation, to?say what you think,” Hafez emphasized, in order to create a modern-day society as a breeding ground for innovation.
He then went on to discuss how he not only created his innovation model, but how he?proved?it, by taking a trip through the history of civilizations who have manifested an incredible amount of innovation in such small time periods, and against such odds. “Being Egyptian, blood Egyptian, I came back to Egypt to see what the pharaohs did, what the Greek, the Romans did. What the Islamic Empire did … to take history as a push, an actualizer of innovation,” Hafez says, “and we have done it. We have produced this book.”
Hafez then walked the crowd through the microcosms of innovation he studied throughout history, beginning with Egypt, and moving on to Europe and America. During a brief hiccup in the speech, with the presentation slides jumping ahead, he feigned shock, joking heartily, “Where is Europe?” “How do we get back to Europe?” “It insists on China, but we want Europe!”
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Speaking on America, Hafez emphasized the importance of an ideal we often cast aside, or take for granted – emulation. “America … is a copy-cat. Everything has been copied! Yes, this is true. A copycat is not actually bad … it’s a good thing. And this happens all the time. And it happens in you guys. Your child will actually imitate you. This is in our DNA, to imitate each other … It’s normal to copy the other person and evolve and develop their ideas to create new value.” China, Hafez says, is also an example of a copy-cat. However, just like America following and adapting the Industrial Revolution of Europe, the result of copying the ideas and implementation of other civilizations is an opportunity for others to create, build off of existing systems, and craft innovative practices on top of the old.
Concluding the first part of his presentation, Hafez speaks on the promulgation of anti-globalization in the past decade, a worrying trend for the future of innovation, and with it, the future of human civilization.
Hafez ends by emphatically urging the audience, “My greatest wish is that we will stay innovative, even in an age of anti-globalization. Innovation is the only way to survive. And I hope, that all of us will survive.”
To great applause, Hafez ends his first speech and gears up for a focused look at innovation in the pandemic world – and just how?we,?as business leaders, innovators, and students of innovation, can survive in such a perilous, unprecedented global catastrophe.
You can watch the first part of Dr. Hafez’s complete presentation, here: