Business

As I said earlier, the only source of value in our business is the consumer's desire for the product. That desire is built on emotions ascribed to diamonds, and if they believe the way that diamond has been brought to their finger does anything other than live up to the values they ascribe to it, we would have a major problem.

The truth is nobody needs a diamond. You don't need a diamond to heat your home, run your car or power your cell-phone. As a business, it's clear to us that there is only one source of value for diamonds- and that is the consumer's desire for the product. 99% of diamond demand is from the jewellery industry, less than 1% goes to industrial uses.

This is the equivalent of asking how close we came to falling through a big crack in the Earth when it didn't actually happen. However… going on eyewitness accounts from very informed and non-hysterical observers such as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and others, it looks like we were quite close. When people start talking seriously about some of the biggest banks in the world folding? …That says you're pretty close to a meltdown.

Prominent Economist & Former Vice Chair of Federal Reserve Board

Our mission is to expand the economic sphere of influence of humanity off the surface of the planet and into the solar system. Currently we have a vibrant economy in space that goes out to the geostationary belt- where the communication satellites are- and it stops.

Many people speculate in BitCoin. It is approximately 8 times more volatile than the stock market. However, that is not the primary use of BitCoin. BitCoin is designed to efficiently and securely aid in transactions.

Duke University finance professor; pioneering research on market anomalies and asset pricing

In the standard putty-clay model, firms, able to get access to long-term capital at a very low interest rate, will invest in highly capital-intensive technologies, because wages have not fallen as much as the cost of capital. But this means that, at any given level of demand for output, employment will actually be reduced.

Nobel Prize-Winning Economist & Critic of Globalization

A lot of businesses these days are markets. Companies like Google make markets for advertisements, Amazon is a market in and of its own right. Uber, AirBnB and many more are becoming big businesses by creating markets.

Nobel Prize-winning economist specializing in market design theory

Generally power is diffusing. New corporations such as Google and Facebook are also examples of power diffusing from nation states and moving to new forms of entities. Technology will only accelerate this trend.

Former NATO Supreme Commander & Military Strategist

Size continues to be important, but is no longer the main factor shielding the powerful from the challenges of newcomers and new arrivals.

Venezuelan editor, author, and international affairs analyst and commentator

On one hand, competitive high-pressure jobs lead executives into many situations that can induce worry and fear (anxiety), hopelessness and despair (depression), and urgency (stress). On the other hand, some people are drawn to high pressure jobs by their adventurous personalities, their ability to tolerate risk, and their motivation for achievement.

Management that is forced into near time results and paybacks is not tuned for the sort of messages that design has to offer––those of long term customer relationships, of innovative approaches to creating desirable uniqueness.

BMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s

Businesses, or rather their leadership, is often saddled with a set of problems and daily issues that prevents them from taking an objective view of their realities…forget the trees, often there is too much leaf watching to notice they are in a forest.

BMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s

What is the value of asking the right question to prompt the right answer? Since it is not a narrow discipline and one with great roots in cultivating subjective experiences the integration and contribution of design is often overlooked in a silo mentality.

BMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s

I hesitate to respond bluntly but 'design' to many businesses is an invisible element somehow present without effort…like 'free wifi'. And, as my son says, to his generation, 'wifi is like air'––taken for granted and only notable when the quality is bad or (god forbid!) it is not there at all.

BMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s

Other enterprises understand design for what it is, the backbone of their corporate culture as well as the summation of all experiences their clients will have with their services and products––and as such well worth the investment of time and resources.

BMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s

Design is the great 're-configurer' of problems for business…for example design takes an engineering solution for transmitting signals called a phone and reconfigures it into a hyper complex problem of glass and metal shapes, etc.

BMW Chief Designer; Revolutionized Automotive Design Language in 2000s