All conflicts are different with their particular history and reasons. I think that inequality within societies and between regions has become a key cause for conflict, exacerbated by rapid information dissemination, as people are now more aware of inequalities.

For large corporations, globalization opened up opportunities without the correlate responsibilities which usually travel with that- so things that banks must do at home they didn't have to do abroad. This took globalization out of balance, into a vicious cycle – and we're now dealing with the consequences of that.

The Chinese government has realised that to fuel capitalism, an atheistic, communistic, civil-religion will never propel growth. They weren't doing because they thought it was 'true' but because they were astute in knowing that you need this kind-of cultural base. Recently the Chinese government have done a major funding push for Buddhist centres and institutes around the world. They are trying to replace one philosophical narrative with another… They realise that their system, frankly, will not support the growth or creativity to create the new technologies and companies that are necessary.

I believe that culture isn't a continuous act. At key inflexion points, it's vital to look at your culture – do our values really represent who we are today and who we want to be?

Running is beautiful and simple – you just put one foot in front of the other at an accelerated pace. There's something primordial about it though – something within us – it's like we're born to run... in this modern era, people choose to run we don't have to run – we're not being pursued by Saber-Toothed Tigers anymore, but we still choose to run. It's something to do which is hard, it connects us to something – and when life gets easy, to feel alive, we need to do something hard.