Powering Prosperity Book Launch: Excerpts and Podcast

Welcome to this week’s edition of Powering Prosperity Weekly.

This weekly newsletter looks at issues relating to the Global Economic Transition that will play out over the coming 20-30 years (see my Apr 13 introductory article on LinkedIn for additional context).

This week, I am proud to announce the launch of my book, Powering Prosperity. It’s available globally in hardcover and kindle format. In the coming weeks, I will be appearing on various podcasts, radio shows, and TV speaking about the themes of the book. I’ll be sure to share those with you!

Today, I wanted to share an episode of the Breakfast Leadership Show with Michael Levitt in which we discussed a whole host of themes from the book such as:

• Building diversified and resilient communities
• Creating jobs for displaced workers
• The importance of sustainable development investments

Listen to my discussion with Michael Levitt on the Breakfast Leadership Show  

I would also like to share an excerpt from the Preface of the book which introduces the three key pillars of the Powering Prosperity framework:

• Advancing Inclusive Governance
• Investing With Purpose
• Empowering Local Communities

These themes will recur throughout our conversations in the newsletter. Here’s the excerpt:

 “As a child of the 1980s, I am a committed capitalist who believes in the extraordinary spirit of the empowered individual to affect positive change. Central to my world view is the importance of private enterprise operating in open and competitive markets and a meritocratic culture that rewards hard work, creativity, and risk taking—all supported by government that is smart, lean, and catalytic.

But having straddled many worlds through my British Indian heritage and my experiences working around the world, I am also a capitalist who passionately believes that strong society is a positive-sum game. Over the past decade, my experience as a development investor has left me with no doubt that a culture of investing in other people’s success is the way to build thriving communities. During my tenure as head of strategy and macroeconomics at Mubadala, the investment and development company of Abu Dhabi, I helped shape a portfolio of investments in new industries and infrastructure that engaged thousands of local citizens. Through this and other experiences, I’ve learned that people are our biggest asset. The more we empower innovators and entrepreneurs, the more we create new markets which make goods and services more accessible to a broader array of consumers in a more sustainable manner. In doing so, we increase demand and productivity growth—global economic goals that have been so elusive of late.

In order to strike the harmonious balance between empowered indi-viduals and a strong society, I believe that government plays a key role in managing trade-offs by engaging the private sector and civil society in a constructive manner. For example, in walking the fine line between keeping taxes low while providing universal access to public goods and driving eco-nomic development, government can enlist the help of investors by setting incentives to steer private capital into public projects such as affordable housing, infrastructure development, and accelerating small enterprises. It can also devolve power to states and local communities, empowering them to shape their own development strategies for attracting businesses, capital, and top talent.

I believe that these principles, taken together, spark the dynamo of a vibrant socio-economy. But unfortunately, most of the world has found it difficult to achieve this balance over the past thirty to forty years. Runaway inequality has led to an upswelling of disillusioned, marginalized citizens and a breakdown in the public trust. In liberal democracies, this has opened the door to populist movements and to chaotic decisions such as Brexit. In more state-controlled regimes, simmering discontent is boiling over into public protest, forcing the regimes in power to tighten their control over public life even further.

In this book, I put forward a different path—a new way of thinking—which rejects divisive politics and seeks to unite citizens behind a common vision for restoring the balance between free enterprise and healthy society. My roadmap, or Citizen’s Guide, casts aside dogmatic political leanings to either the left or the right and focuses on pragmatic solutions organized around the following three themes:

• Advancing Inclusive Governance to win back the public trust.
• Investing With Purpose to address the long-term Sustainable Development Challenge.
• Empowering Local Communities to become innovative, connected, entrepreneurial hubs in a globalizing world.

In the course of my lifetime, whenever humanity has pulled together to achieve common goals, incredible watershed moments have followed: the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the end of apartheid in 1994, the first legalization of same-sex marriage by the Netherlands in 2000, and the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2016. These dramatic achievements can all be traced back to the courageous leadership of a few citizens who were ultimately able to rally humanity to raise the high-water mark of freedom.

As citizens, each of us holds a portfolio of roles in society—as voters, parents, school principals, public officials, judges, union representatives, employees, consumers, investors, board members, bloggers, journalists, and the list goes on. Each role endows us with the power to express our values, influence others, and shape the future. The personal choices we make about how we select political representatives, what products we buy, the work we choose to take on, the companies we support with our investment, and how we educate the next generation all leave a lasting imprint.

The more we act with consistent authenticity across all our roles in society, the greater our personal impact. When, as bold citizens, we make principled choices, our voices inspire followers. And when, as a society, we unify around a common vision, large-scale change becomes possible.

It’s time to set aside differences and to focus on our shared interests in order to make the big changes that are required. In this book, I have laid out a common vision for Advancing Inclusive Governance, Investing With Purpose, and Empowering Local Communities—all of which, I believe, will be essential to power prosperity in the 21st century.”