As 2012 draws to a close, I thought I’d take the opportunity to share a handful of the articles, books, shows, conversations and documentaries that informed, inspired and entertained me throughout the year. I hope that a few are also informative, inspiring and entertaining for you.

Elon Musk in Coversation

2012 was a standout year for entrepreneur Elon Musk. After rocky, touch-and-go starts, his three California-based companies–Space X, Tesla, and Solar City–all hit major milestones. If, like I, you are fascinated by him, then this July conversation with Pando Daily founder Sarah Lacy is worthwhile viewing. He’s shockingly accomplished–and incredibly understated. A nice combination.

Commander in Chief

Early in the year I took up watching the 2005 ABC series Commander in Chief on Netflix. Starring Geena Davis as President Mackenzie Allen–a political independent–and Donald Sutherland as Nathan Templeton–her nemesis and Speaker of the House–it aired one season. It took me through August to watch all 19 episodes, and as the contentious US presidential election unfolded and Congress and President Obama duked it out in real life, it made for entertaining viewing. I particularly liked Geena Davis’ portrayal of President Allen: smart, tough, bold and compassionate. On that note, this past weekend the headline article for the Financial Times’ Women of 2012 feature was a great profile of German Chancellor Angela Merkel: A Woman of Power (registration required).

Artists and Architects: Documentaries

I’ve written before on the lessons that artists’ creative processes hold for innovators. Five documentaries, old and new, that I enjoyed this year: Pearl Jam Twenty, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, Absolute Wilson, How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?, and My Architect.

Each tells the story of an artist–or in the case of Pearl Jam, a group–who defied convention–and the challenges and rewards of doing so. Ai Weiwei deserves special note, as he is part artist, part political activist, and I was struck by both his profound courage and his sneaky, mischievous wit–he’s an appealing personality (I wrote about his Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads briefly, here). I was prompted to watch the Oscar-winning My Architect as New York celebrated the opening of the Louis Kahn-designed Roosevelt Memorial, Four Freedoms Park, during the Fall. The New York Times‘ review of the park is here.

Top Chef: Ferran Adrià

As cooking is one of my favorite creative outlets, Bravo’s Top Chef is much-loved brain candy. Combine Top Chef with boundary-breaking artistry, and you get the documentary Cooking in Progress–an inside look at assembling a season’s menu at Chef Ferran Adrià’s renowned El Bulli, now closed. During the film Adrià never once takes a turn at the stove. He’s more conductor, quarterback or mastermind than he is originator–it’s his team that stirs up the magic. The movie is slow-paced, but for aficionados, worth every second. In his No Reservations episode on the closing of El Bulli, lovable bad-boy Anthony Bourdain offers up a spicier take.

Finding Your M.O.

In June the Business of Fashion began running a series on launching a fashion-technology startup: Finding Your M.O.. Now in its 13th installment, written by Moda Operandi CEO and Co-founder Áslaug Magnúsdóttir, the series could easily be a book or a stand-alone microsite. One of the most comprehensive, insightful first-hand resources I’ve seen on the in’s and out’s of getting a startup off the ground, it is relevant to fashion and non-fashion ventures alike. If you’re starting a business, thinking about starting a business, or working with startup clients, I can’t recommend it enough.

Danielle LaPorte

I am a voracious reader of self-improvement and leadership books that have a through line to creativity and work as spiritual practice. I mentioned one of my favorites, The Artist’s Way, here, and Phil Jackson’s Sacred Hoops, here. This fall I discovered Danielle LaPorte. She is a wizard with words, a hipped-up version of Artist’s Way author Julia Cameron, an Earth Mother rendition of Steven Covey. Anyone who quotes Rumi and Ayn Rand has my attention: my kundalini yoga-loving, Investment Banker self digs her.

As we move into a New Year, Danielle’s theory of goal setting is especially relevant: if we set goals by how we want to feel, rather than by what we want to accomplish, life flows. In working with this idea, I have found it to be powerful, expansive, energizing. You can see her talk about it here. I read The Fire Starter Sessions, and she has just published The Desire Map.

Arab Women on the Frontline

Simon Kuper is a columnist for the Financial Times‘ weekend Life + Arts section. His most recent article Arab Women on the Frontline briefly recounts his conversations about the Arab Spring with four Arab women, all activists in their respective countries. It brought me to tears. Their quiet courage, fiery passion stirred me. As the conflict in Syria intensifies, Israel and the Palestinians continue to wage battle and Egypt wavers, I marvel at and am deeply inspired by their conviction and persistence.

For me, 2012 was about hard work, heavy lifting and foundation setting for a capital markets initiative I am developing. I look forward to sharing pieces of it publicly next year. As we head into 2013, I send all wishes for peace, love and happiness for the year ahead, and I leave you with the inevitable in 2012: a Gangnam Style video–sculptor Anish Kapoor’s artist-packed tribute to Ai Weiwei, after his Gangnam Style parody was blocked by China’s censors.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Photo: BBC via The Telegraph

Summer was not kind to Facebook. It was harsher still to Groupon and Zynga. All three companies are new to the public markets. If you were to look to their debuts only, you’d be forgiven for concluding that going public is a raw deal. Each of their stocks, to put it nicely, got hammered between Memorial Day and Labor Day–the US holidays that bookend summer. The Dow, during the same period? It rose 5%.

Going public is as much art as science. And as with any art, discipline and finesse make all the difference between masterpiece and flop. So for every Facebook, Groupon or Zynga, there is a LinkedIn, Zillow or Michael Kors. Each entered the market last year. Today, all three have stocks that are up more than 100% from their offerings, more than 90% this year–levels of outperformance that every founder, CEO, management team, Board, underwriting group and investor hopes for from an IPO–keeping the romance of the stock market alive.

Diverse in size, stage of development, offering, share and governance structures, these six companies’ deals yield a handful of do’s and don’ts that can help others navigate entry to the public market–artfully.

Photo: Keith Bedford for Reuters

There has been a whole lot of sexy going on in New York this past week. That’s normal, for this time of year. Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, which began last Thursday, wraps up today. And while the après Labor Day fashion buzz is nothing unusual, what has struck me this go round is that the transition people have anticipated for ages has finally happened: New York Fashion Week has grown up.

Maybe it was the move from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center two years ago. Maybe it was the seasoning of a crop of talented younger designers–Proenza, Alexander, Jason, Zac–filling in behind the old guard–Ralph, Donna, Carolina, Oscar–creating a solid platform for a new guard–Wes, Reed, the Olsens, Sophie. Maybe it is the culmination of six years of tending and nurturing of the CFDA by wise, multi-term President, Diane von Furstenberg. Whatever the reason, this was not a hit-or-miss New York Fashion Week. One collection after another was fabulous. Sexy was dialed-up to 10.

I have favorites. Topping the list: colorful and refined Sophie Theallet, countered by badass and edgy Proenza Schouler (A lime green and black python vest and white punched out leather skirt lead the way? C’mon now guys, you’re killing me.). Daytime/nighttime, uptown/downtown, yin/yang.

Close behind, much to my surprise: Alexander Wang and Reed Krakoff. I haven’t ever been drawn to either designer, but I loved both of these very modern collections. Another yin/yang pair: Wang, mostly black, white and silver, very structured, lots of leather. Krakoff, on the other hand, soft, slouchy, relaxed neutrals. And in both of these collections: the shoes. The shoes! (Bye-bye platforms. Not sad.)

Finally, another duo, both broadcasting chic glamour: Jason Wu and Chado Ralph Rucci, Wu drawing inspiration from the hyper-sexy photography of Helmut Newton and Rucci doing what he does impeccably–exquisite, tailored elegance, punctuated this season with a snap of attention-grabbing neon. (Some of you will remember my tongue-tied encounter with Rucci last year. I am a long-time admirer.)

Twenty years ago then-CFDA Executive Director Fern Mallis shepherded New York Fashion Week into existence, spurred on by a rogue piece of ceiling landing on the head of fashion editor Suzy Menkes at a 1991 Michael Kors show in Chelsea, so the story goes. Today Michael Kors is running a $10 billion, global company. And now, with the tents anchored by a broad and deep bench of sophisticated designers, fashion week generates $700 million a year for the New York economy. All grown up, indeed.

Throughout this week longtime New York fashion doyenne, Ellin Saltzman, has contributed a chatty, picture-rich set of posts about the shows to New York Social Diary. They begin in reverse order here.

Thom Browne’s quirky collection was one that I didn’t find so sexy. But the quality of craftsmanship and the originality of thinking was extraordinary, perhaps reminiscent of Alexander McQueen. A gown is featured in the final photo, above. Links on the six designers’ names, above, are to Style.com reviews and photos. You can check my Pinterest Style board for a handful of other looks that I liked from the week, and you can watch Proenza Schouler’s runway show below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When three-year-old Groupon filed to go public in June, market commentators dialed the outrage meter up to 10.

Flashpoints: an aggressive business model, creative accounting, and a track record of cashing out early investors–to the tune of $1 billion. Further irritants: public puffery from the Chairman and the CEO during the so-called quiet period and August and September resignations of two senior team members–PR Chief Brad Williams and COO Margo Georgiadis–only months after they joined the Company.

In late September, Groupon re-filed its registration statement. Thanks to SEC oversight, the numbers had been scrubbed. Management and early investors scrapped their plans to sell shares. Today, despite the bumps, the Company hits the road to meet with potential new investors. If all goes as planned, on November 3rd Groupon will be publicly traded, having sold 30 million shares in a $500 million transaction.

Although the IPO is moving forward, Groupon has paid a price for the shenanigans it pulled on the way to the start line of its roadshow. In addition to insiders withdrawing their shares from the deal, the Company is likely to raise $250 million less than it had originally hoped.

More notably, it had been anticipating a market capitalization of $25 to $30 billion, post-pricing. Expected market capitalization is now less than half that–$10 to $12 billion. In fairness, some of the drop comes from the deterioration of the IPO market since Groupon filed. But market conditions alone are not responsible. The hubris of the Company’s founders, investors, bankers, accountants and attorneys has cost them all.

Earlier this month venture capitalist Fred Wilson (whose top-notch blog, AVC, I wrote about back in February) published a brief note entitled Building a Company vs. Building a Business–where company is culture, values and business is product, revenues, profit. In it he wrote:

No matter how or when you do it, building a company is a required step to sustainability. Positive cash flow is not enough to keep the company independent and solvent. You need a culture, systems, and processes to keep everyone happy and functioning well.

And in its just-released November issue, Harvard Business Review has published an interview with Infosys founder N. R. Narayana Murthy in which he discusses the crucial role that clearly defined values played for him and his co-founders, as they deliberately set out to build Infosys into not only a global organization, but also India’s most respected company.

The scale of Groupon’s accomplishments is undeniable: from zero to over $1.5 billion in annual revenues in 45 countries in less than three years. The Company creates real sales, savings and income for its merchant partners, customers and more than 10,000 employees around the world. But the hubris that cost the Company in its run up to its IPO is a briskly waving red flag: Groupon is built on a shaky foundation at best–values, to date, an afterthought.

Few company founders are as rigorously attentive to the question of values from the get-go as Murthy and his Infosys cohorts were. And yet, as Wilson points out, all need to be eventually, in order for a company to survive.

Groupon needs to focus, stat. The Company’s senior management team has been together for less than 10 months and is now facing powerful new competitors (including online peers and credit card companies) and, shortly, will be under the pressure of relentless quarterly earnings expectations. Values are the glue that will hold the Company together, as the easy opportunities that drove its early growth dry up and public shareholders want answers.

In August 2010, Forbes profiled Groupon in an article entitled Meet the Fastest Growing Company Ever. Company co-founder and CEO Andrew Mason spoke with Charlie Rose in December 2010. Watch here. In August, Vanity Fair ran a profile of Mason. Read here. He is No. 27 on the magazine’s 2011 New Establishment list.

You can view Groupon’s roadshow, including a video of senior management walking through the presentation, here. The Company’s latest registration statement, filed on Friday, is here. Lead underwriters on the IPO are Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. The Company’s accountants are Ernst & Young.

Note: This article is one of a regular series, Bass Notes, on ethics, accountability and sustainability. It is also available on Huffington Post. Subscribe to Bass Notes and regular postings via email or RSS below.

Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP via San Francisco Chronicle 

For five decades artist Christo has been inspiring and infuriating, uniting and dividing communities large and small, urban and rural, around the globe.

Last Friday, nineteen years after he and his wife and collaborator, Jeanne-Claude (who passed away in late 2009), conceived of their proposed Colorado project Over the River, it came one step closer to fruition. The Colorado State Land Board approved two land leases necessary to allow the project to move forward. As with his other works over the years, Over the River will be a temporary installation–5.9 miles of shimmering fabric panels suspended above the Arkansas River in south-central Colorado for a two week stretch–if all goes as planned, in August 2014.

I am unabashedly smitten by each of Christo’s pieces, a portfolio of the unlikeliest of undertakings that includes wrapping the Pont Neuf in Paris, the Reichstag in Berlin and islands in Biscayne Bay, erecting giant umbrellas across rolling Japanese and California landscapes, bright orange gates in Central Park. And the multi-year process that brings each sweeping project to life–the inception of the idea, the meticulous studying, planning, permitting and the patient, committed coalition building–is as interesting, inspiring as the works themselves.

Over the River has proven to be a particularly contentious piece–although all have had their detractors. The very last approval for the project is expected this fall from the Bureau of Land Management. Yet, opponents–including the main one, Rags Over the Arkansas River (ROAR)–remain fired up. Some are angered by the disruption they anticipate from the two year construction period, others by potential environmental consequences–despite extensive environmental planning and mitigation commitments, a group is threatening to sue, which may bog the process down yet again.

Over the River is as close as its ever been to moving forward. But it remains at a standstill. The Gates is the only work of Christo’s I’ve seen in person. I’d love to raft down the Arkansas under Over the River.

A Wall Street Journal article on the challenges of rallying the surrounding Colorado communities was published last fall. You can read it here. And a September Q & A with Christo, published in the Denver Post, is here. In it Christo discusses how he and Jeanne Claude chose the Arkansas River for the project, as well as some of the environmental impact issues, which you can also read about in more detail on Christo’s site here and on the Bureau of Land Management’s site here. A video of Christo at the proposed site for Over the River is here.

Award-winning filmmakers David and Albert Maysles, directors of the iconic Rolling Stones documentary, Gimme Shelter, have made multiple films recording Christo and Jeanne Claude at work. Two–Christo’s Valley Curtain and Running Fence–received Academy Award nominations.

At the same time that he pursues completion of Over the River, Christo is simultaneously working to bring forth another long-term vision in the United Arab Emirates. The Mastaba, conceived in 1977, would be an installation constructed of brightly colored oil barrels in the desert 100 miles south of Abu Dhabi.

Photo: Wolfgang Volz, Project Rendering by Christo

Responsible investing continues to grow up, go mainstream. In September, three events–the publication of two reports and the launch of a new investment product–highlighted the diverse ways in which it’s doing so.

Early in the month the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) published its Annual Report on Progress. As this is the fifth year that the six principles have been in place, UNPRI took the opportunity to look back, to review the evolution of responsible investing since the principles were launched in 2006 at the New York Stock Exchange by then-Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan.

What’s changed? According to those who have been signatories since the start, being party to the PRI has fostered improved transparency and clarity of reporting on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, both on the part of asset managers and the companies they invest in, it has bolstered asset managers’ willingness to engage as active owners on ESG issues, and it has fueled increased collaboration between signatories, as champions of the PRI specifically and effective ESG monitoring and reporting generally.

As for the pace of adaptation? Signatories to the principles are up 30% from August 2010 to 2011. Now, over 900 asset owners and investment managers who oversee over $30 trillion in assets–invested globally in public and private equity, real estate and fixed income–are party to the principles. In September über-mainstream US behemoth PIMCO–with more than $1 trillion under management–signed on.

Just after UNPRI released its annual report, the UK-based non-profit Forum for the Future published Sustainable Economy in 2040: A Roadmap for Capital Markets. Produced at the request of the $400 million asset management arm of the UK insurance company Aviva, Aviva Investors, the document clearly delineates the ties between constructive, large-scale investor commitments and the broader, long-term economic health of society.

Further, it identifies key investment opportunities for all interested asset managers–not just those focused on responsible investing–to target in the areas of food, health, energy, mobility and finance, in order to carve a path to a viable, sustainable future, globally. The report is an empowering one, pushing all investors to think more broadly–and responsibly–about the profoundly positive impact that carefully considered capital allocation decisions can have on our collective well-being.

Finally, late in the month, the launch of GIIRS (pronounced gears), the Global Impact Investment Ratings System from B Corporation. An ongoing challenge for those interested in pursuing responsible investing? Obtaining clear, consistent, comparable data by which to assess companies’ and funds’ real ESG performance. Backed by support from Deloitte, Prudential and the Rockefeller Foundation, GIIRS is in the early stages of delivering a product that addresses this very real need. For now, GIIRS ratings are only available in the private market. GIIRS’ ultimate ambition? To catalyze $1 trillion in impact investment over the next ten years–across private and public markets alike.

Large-scale, accelerating rates of commitment, positive vision, objective metrics–these are powerful developments for a segment of the investing world that has, in the past, frequently been shunted to the side, orphaned or ghettoized–and proven unable to punch back by showcasing an army of advocates, a broadly compelling raison d’être or tools for investors to use, in order to engage with ease. September presented us with more evidence: responsible investing is ready to be taken seriously.

Aviva Investors’ London CEO, Paul Abberley, has been an unusually outspoken critic of investors’ failure to pay attention to the role their decisions play in affecting environmental degradation. On October 20th he will speak in Washington, DC at the two day conference The Tipping Point: Sustained Stability in the Next Economy sponsored by the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative. Nasim Taleb and Gordon Brown will keynote. Registration details are here.

Aviva has also been a partner to UNPRI in its efforts to encourage stock exchanges around the world to require better ESG disclosure from listees. The next Sustainable Stock Exchange Global Dialogue will be held in conjunction with the UN Earth Summit in Rio in June 2012. The initiative has been selected as a finalist for a Katerva Award. Winners will be announced December 7, 2011 in New York.

Note: This article has been edited for clarity since its original publication. It is one of a regular series, Bass Notes, on ethics, accountability and sustainability in business. It is also available on Huffington Post. Subscribe to Bass Notes and regular postings via email or RSS below.

Elizabeth Streb is an extreme choreographer, MacArthur Foundation Fellow and the visionary behind the Streb Lab for Action Mechanics. Behance’s 99% recently published a brief, but terrific, interview with her entitled On Taking Big Risks and the Power of Action. Her thinking brought to mind the article that I am republishing here, one of the very first that I wrote, on the lessons that artists’ creative processes hold for business innovators.

Innovation–the creation of a product or process that is radically new, unique and different–is the holy grail in today’s business world. What many of those who beat its drum rarely mention is that the path to true innovation is rooted in pure creativity. To innovate brilliantly requires facing down the deepest challenges of the creative process: high anxiety, ambiguity, seemingly impassable roadblocks, even failure.

Although the business world has tried to translate creative processes into business-speak, I find artists the best guides on navigating and channeling creativity effectively. Their processes are rooted in tolerating, working with and even valuing uncertainty and failure. Their lessons carry great weight for those seeking to understand and catalyze creativity in the business world–to innovate brilliantly.

Here are my five go-to reads on the creative process–from a choreographer, a novelist, an acting coach, a violinist and a screenwriter.

1. The Creative Habit--Twyla Tharp

Creativity is a discipline, an idea addressed in each of the books listed here. No one makes the point more clearly, however, than Twyla Tharp.

Tharp is one of America’s leading choreographers. She leverages her decades-long experience as a pioneer in the dance world to lay out a primer to producing exceptional creative output, accessible and relevant to artists and non-artists alike. Each chapter concludes with simple, effective exercises to stimulate creative thinking, devices she herself has used repeatedly in her work. She makes brilliance sound and look appealingly easy.

2. The War of Art–Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield is a former marine and the author of The Legend of Bagger Vance, Gates of Fire and Tides of War. I haven’t read any of his novels. The quote from Esquire on the front of my dog eared, paperback copy of The War of Art says “A vital gem … a kick in the ass.” That pretty much sums it up.

A quick read, one I come back to regularly for inspiration, Pressfield leads you on a forced march through the landmine-strewn fields of creative resistance, gives you straight talk about “turning professional”, and then gently lays out the satisfying prize for facing down creative fears: deep emotional sustenance. It’s awesome.

Pressfield writes for anyone struggling with creative resistance, including, in his words, artists, entrepreneurs and those aiming for tighter abs. Couple The War of Art with Steven Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and you have the ultimate right brain/left brain boot camp for personal mastery.

3. The Art of Acting–Stella Adler

This is the only book on this list that is a How To for a specific type of artist. I picked it up out of curiosity about Adler, one of the 20th century’s preeminent acting coaches. She worked with Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel, among others.

It turns out that Adler, in Brando’s words is “much more than a teacher of acting. Through her work she imparts the most valuable kind of information–how to discover the nature of our own emotional mechanics and therefore those of others.” And–to continue Brando’s thought–to use this information as the basis for creative output. She’s a strict disciplinarian, demands complete obedience to her approach from her students and weaves together a set of creative tools that are of value to anyone considering a leadership role in business.

4. Free Play–Stephen Nachmanovitch

Nachmanovitch, a violinist, is the near diametric opposite of Steven Pressfield. Gentle, spiritual and soulful, he coaxes the reader through the joys and perils of the creative process, alluding to the love that drives people to creative endeavors and expression.

This is a heady, intellectual take on creativity–Nachmanovitch’s reference points range from the Greeks, through German philosophers, to Zen Buddhists and beyond. Free Play is the only book on this list to address creativity in the context of working as a group, albeit briefly. It’s a nourishing read.

5. The Artist’s Way–Julia Cameron

If Nachmanovitch is loosely spiritual, Cameron is directly so. The Artist’s Way is Cameron’s twelve week “creative recovery” program, grounded in her belief that creativity is an act of spiritual expression. Creative-types know the book well and have strong opinions about it.

I’ve done the program through. I loved it. And I took elements of it with a grain of salt. I viewed it as a path of creative discovery, rather than recovery. And while I did use it as a catalyst for my own artistic endeavors, I also often substituted the word businessperson for artist and found it to be equally useful and effective as a catalyst for my professional creativity. The business version of the book–which I haven’t read–is entitled The Artist’s Way at Work.

Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings is one of the few email newsletters I subscribe to. In mid-September she featured five books on fear and the creative process. The Creative Habit and The War of Art were two of the five. This week–as an antidote, perhaps–she’s featuring seven books to catalyze playful creativity–in adults.

I have capitulated. I have stopped avoiding the Singularity.

For the past couple of years–at least–I have been catching threads of chatter about the concept of the Singularity–loosely, the point in time when, through Artificial Intelligence, genetic engineering or other technological manipulation, a superhuman intellect is born. I have heard just enough to be weirded out. So I’ve avoided the topic all together.

Of course, I have also been curious. So this past weekend I decided to commit a few hours, dig in, learn more. And I proved Lev Grossman right. He wrote, in his Time article on the Singularity, “People are attracted to the Singularity for the shock value, like an intellectual freak show, but they stay because there’s more to it than they expected.”

Anyone who’s just learning about the Singularity undoubtedly begins, as I did, with Ray Kurzweil. Prolific inventor, future thinker, it was his 2005 book, The Singularity is Near, that pushed the concept of the Singularity into the public’s consciousness, and he’s been the relentless public face of the idea since. I started with the recent documentary about him, Transcendent Man. 

The take aways: Kurzweil is not the only advocate of the Singularity, the concept has its detractors, and there are many lesser riffs on the idea–ways in which technology may amp and extend our performance, capabilities, without taking over. As Grossman had predicted, I was hooked and went searching for more information.

A few of the resources I found:

• Kurzweil AI–An aggregation of news items and event information, books, essays and blog entries from leading thinkers in the Singularity community. Includes links to Singularity-relevant podcasts, tv shows, movies.
• Singularity Summit–Launched in 2006 by Kurzweil and PayPal co-founder and investor Peter Thiel–an ardent supporter of all things Singularity–this year’s Summit will be held October 15-16 in New York. Videos from past summits are here.
• Singularity Reading List–A resource from the Summit, this list includes links to what I’ve learned are many of the foundational readings on the Singularity: Eric Drexler‘s 1986 book on the potentialities of nanotechnology, Vernor Vinge‘s 1993 article in which he introduced the term the Singularity, Bill Joy‘s 1999 Wired article outlining the ethical and social perils of the quest for the Singularity and, of course, Kurzweil’s book.
• IEEE Spectrum–IEEE is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. This 2008 issue of their magazine, IEEE Spectrum, is devoted to the Singularity. I’m always happy to find CliffsNotes summaries on complex topics. Among other things, it includes a handy who’s who guide to the Singularity universe.
  
• Singularity University–Not only has Kurzweil created a weekend long summit on the Singularity, he’s also–in conjunction with X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis–created a singularity University–actually, a summer program for graduate students and 4- and 7-day programs for executives, housed at NASA’s Ames, co-founded with google. A New York Times article on the program is here.
• TED Talks–In keeping with the CliffsNotes theme, TED is a reliable source of digestable presentations on challenging subjects by big thinkers. Here there are presentations by Singularity supporters, skeptics and influencers including, among others Bill Joy, former Wired magazine Executive Editor Kevin Kelly, biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey–whose thinking on aging I find mind-bending, personal robotics expert Cynthia Breazeal and, of course, Kurzweil.
• Google Conference on Artificial General Intelligence–Held early August in Mountainview, the videos from this event are available online here. This is, suffice it to say, the opposite of CliffsNotes.
• Future of Humanity Institute–Run by Nick Bostrom, one of the organizations at the forefront of thinking about the moral and ethical issues inherent in the technologies underpinning the Singularity.

In April Bradley Fried, former CEO of the UK arm of South African Investment Bank Investec, wrote an OpEd for the Financial Times entitled Mandela’s Lessons in Truth for City High Fliers.

The article came to mind this past Sunday morning, when I received an event invitation via email, tagged by the subject line Will the Finance Industry Destroy America and the Human Soul? A day earlier a small group of feisty protesters had begun to gather at the southern tip of Manhattan. Their goal? To occupy Wall Street. Their demands? Ambiguous, but images of Tahrir Square and general frustration with government, the banking industry and the state of the US economy propelled assembly.

Fried grew up in South Africa. His first-hand experience with that country’s efforts to heal and rebuild, post-apartheid, led him to suggest that the lessons of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission could be leveraged in the UK to promote effective resolution of lingering wounds inflicted by the financial crisis of 2008. And, he posited, failure to objectively address public anger at banks and politicians might lead to a second, more profound financial crisis in the future.

That a crisis as deep as the one we have just been through requires public healing, resolution, struck me as a very wise notion, relevant not only to the UK, but also to the US–perhaps even more so. The invitation that I received on Sunday, the Wall Street protest, no matter how rinky dink, highlighted anew the wisdom and potential value of the idea, in particular its spirit of dialogue, forgiveness, rather than, as Fried noted, “retributive justice and political grandstanding.”

Much as South Africa’s Commission moved the conversation out of the courts, opening it directly between agressor, aggrieved, a similar process focused on the US financial crisis would take the conversation out of the hands of the media, incendiary pundits, Congress, opening it directly between CEO’s, derivatives traders, mortgage brokers, hedge fund managers, financial regulators, sub-prime borrowers, home owners.

The opportunity? To humanize what has been, until now, a complex dialogue carried out at arm’s length, mostly in sound bites, steered primarily by numbers-driven news organizations with vested interests in promoting rifts rather than rapprochement.

It would be naive, however, to expect that a process like this would be embraced without encountering significant mistrust, suspicion, resistance, hostility, even, just as South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission did. Nelson Mandela’s solution? To appoint one of the country’s revered religious leaders–Archbishop Desmond Tutu–as compassionate and passionate steward of that Commission’s sensitive work.

In the US, where religion is a fraught, often divisive topic, to search for a religious figurehead who might mirror the choice of Tutu as shepherd of a financial crisis commission would likely be to put the entire idea at risk. Yet to gloss over the spirituality inherent in the ideas of truth, forgiveness, reconciliation–and the implied benefit from bringing spirit and character into the conversation about the financial system–would be to risk creating a set of exchanges more superficial than effective.

One possible approach: partner an organization such as The John Templeton Foundation–founded by a pioneering investor, devoted to exploring spirituality and its role and place in culture, broadly, and markets, specifically–with an éminence grise from Wall Street–John Bogle, Pete Peterson, or, a radical thought, Michael Milken–as a means of defining a moral framework, establishing financial credibility, creating public visibility and fostering trust from all parties involved.

Publicly and privately our conversations about the financial crisis have been and continue to be infused with sharp anger. To expect that ongoing anger to take no toll on our nation’s spirit–and financial markets–is also naive. Fried’s idea of fostering instead conversations with intent to heal struck me as sound when I first encountered it, no less so today.

Note: This article is one of a regular series, Bass Notes, on ethics, accountability and sustainability. It is also available on Huffington Post. Subscribe to Bass Notes and regular postings via email or RSS below.

Back in June I wrote a brief note in which I enthused about just-launched flash sale site Fab.com. My ardor was fueled not only by the site’s great product and design, but also by founder-CEO Jason Goldberg’s commitment to a level of transparency surprising in any company, especially an early stage, venture-funded one.

From Day One Jason has shared liberally, publishing graphs, charts and notes on his personal blog revealing Fab’s strategy, traffic levels, conversion rates, sales volumes, even sales breakdown by product category–information extremely valuable to anyone else selling design- and lifestyle-related products online.

It takes confidence, conviction, a willingness to move against conventional wisdom, to lay it bare. Just three short months after launch Fab.com has more than 600,000 registered users, has booked more than 80,000 transactions and is on track to generate $10 million in revenues in 2011.

CEO transparency is tricky. Wielded deliberately, effectively, backed by a clear, well-crafted corporate strategy, it amplifies a positive message, personalizes and attaches a likable face, voice to the brand across a company’s ecosystem–with consumers, employees, investors, suppliers, partners.

Wielded recklessly, ineffectively or in tandem with a corporate strategy that is unclear, muddled? It amplifies all of the wrong things across that same network, eroding a company’s real and perceived value.

A case study of the risks and challenges of heartfelt CEO transparency, playing out at the same time that Jason has been laying the Fab foundation down: Reed Hastings of Netflix. A long-time darling of investors, Netflix has lost over half of its market value since early July, as founder-CEO Hastings has struggled to communicate significant pricing and business model changes to customers and the market.

By all means it is easier to be transparent when the news is good, the company is small, business accelerating. CEOs who hone the art of effective transparency during the good times build up a transparency trustfund–for themselves and their company–goodwill that can be drawn on as the company grows, when it does encounter the inevitable bumps. These CEOs are few and far between and an inspiration to watch. Pay attention, as Jason Goldberg leads Fab forward.

An insightful post by Andreesen Horowitz partner and former IronPort CEO, Scott Weiss, on the managerial value of pursuing a policy of transparency–and the challenges of maintaining it in the transition from private to public company–is here.

You can see Jason in conversation last week with TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsosis here. A longer conversation with entrepreneur, investor and Digg founder Kevin Rose is here. In July Fab.com announced that it had raised an $8 million round of venture funding. Led by Menlo Ventures, Rose participated in the round–as did Ashton Kutcher.

A small group of UK consumer companies has taken matters into their own hands. Growing, privately held, faced with a difficult credit environment, armed with a base of loyal customers and led mostly by passionate founder-CEOs, these companies have gone straight to the public to raise capital. They’ve done it in the form of debt, issuing what they are calling minibonds or–in the case of green power company ecotricity–ecobonds.

The pioneer, in 2009, was King of Shaves. Since then ecotricity, chocolate purveyor Hotel Chocolat, retail partnership John Lewis and, this week, foreign exchange specialist Caxton FX have followed. Amounts raised have ranged from £600,000 in the case of King of Shaves, to £50 million in the case of John Lewis. Caxton FX is targeting £4 million.

In recent years there has been growing demand from UK retail investors for easier access to corporate bond issues. In response, in early 2010 the London Stock Exchange (LSE) launched the Orderbook for Retail Bonds (ORB), an electronic trading platform designed to improve information flow on the bond market and to encourage issuers to structure bonds in denominations attractive to retail holders–£100 to £1,000 rather than the typical £10,000 to £50,000.

The minibonds pick up on this trend, add a dose of Kickstarter and allow smaller companies to meet their capital needs. At a time when interest rates on basic savings accounts in the UK hover around 3.0%, investors have received promises of annual cash and in-kind returns of 6.0% – 7.5%, in exchange for committing minimums of £1,000-£2,000 for three to five years. In the case of John Lewis, the offer to participate in the offering was made only to partnership members and employees, and ecotricity customers were given the opportunity to participate at higher levels than non-customers.

As with any investment, there are risks. Each of these companies is long-established–the youngest is Caxton FX, founded in 2002, reportedly generating in excess of £400 million in revenues today. Nonetheless, as they are private and the issues are unregulated, information disclosed varies widely and there are no associated reporting requirements. Further, since none of these bonds is traded on the ORB, there is no market for them. An investor is committed for the life of the issue and cannot benefit from UK tax breaks normally associated with bonds held for the longer term–the privately-issued bonds cannot be deposited into the associated accounts where those benefits accrue.

Over the summer, to address some of these issues, Conservative MP and former Goldman Sachs banker Sam Gyimah put forth a proposal for a bond exchange for small and medium sized companies. An interesting idea–for the US as well–it has received support from the LSE–it would be a logical partner to the ORB–as well as from Stephen Welton, who is CEO of the Business Growth Fund, a cross-bank investment fund targeting small and medium sized companies.

The emergence of minibonds is an unsurprising outgrowth of the financial crisis–they represent company-led innovation, tap into consumer and employee desire for a greater sense of meaning and connection to the products they use and places they work, and they address the financial needs of both growing companies and retail investors. The surprise? That there haven’t been more companies issuing minibonds to date, that they haven’t cropped up yet in the US and that there haven’t been more financial innovations like them.

You can review John Lewis’ documentation for its offering here. ecotricty’s renegade CEO, Dale Vince, keeps a cleverly-titled blog–Zero Carbonista. You can read his post about the company’s offering here. ecotricity is reportedly planning a second, larger ecobond offering for later this year or early next. Information on the Caxton FX bonds is available here.

Next up? Crowdsourced equity. BrewDog, a Scottish brewery and pub group that ran an online IPO in 2009, is currently raising £2.2 million via a direct offering that they’re subversively referring to as Equity for Punks. You can download the prospectus here and watch the offering video below.

Back in July Seth Godin published a blog post entitled No Such Thing as Business Ethics. I’ve never read a book by Godin. I’m not a regular reader of his blog. So, I didn’t happen to see the post until mid-August. It’s stayed with me since.

Around the same time that I read Godin’s piece there was a front page story in The New York Times about a labor dispute taking place in Palmyra, Pennsylvania. 300 foreign students walked off the job at a Hershey’s plant to protest what they claimed were unfair labor conditions in summer jobs they had paid to obtain, under the auspices of the State Department’s J-1 Visa designation, a short-term cultural exchange program for college students.

It turns out that while Hershey’s did own the plant, there were several layers of subcontractors and staffing agencies between the company and the workers. Hershey’s was washing its hands of the problem by pointing fingers at its subcontractors–via a post on its Facebook page.

Then, at the end of August, Apple was charged for a second time this year by a group of five Chinese NGOs with alleged widespread environmental degradation within its supplier network. Again, stonewalling and broad, deep and, in this case, opaque subcontractor relationships factored into the picture. The NGOs had published one report in early January to which Apple refused to reply. Finally, only hours in advance of the publication of this second, more detailed one, the Company agreed to conversations with one of the reports’ co-authors.

In his post Godin wrestles with the apparent dichotomy many business thinkers have tackled: doing good versus maximizing profit. And like many before him, he takes the position that more often than not–and, by his reckoning, more frequently now than in the past–it’s an either-or choice, driven by deepening global complexity, a weighting of short-term performance over long-term and an ability to limit transparency–made possible in part, he notes, by multi-layered subcontracting networks.

As the Hershey’s and the Apple situations reveal, the tension of the either-or is all too real. Godin’s conclusion? Only when every individual employee commits to doing the right thing can business overcome the pressure and do good. My own? Only when the CEO makes that commitment is the either-or eliminated, freeing a company, its employees to make strategic and operational choices focused on long-term–profitable–good.

The Hershey’s and Apple situations are still very much in play. Both companies with strong founder legacies are under the stewardship of brand new CEOs. Hershey’s, while having softened its stance on its situation a touch, remains oddly quiet. Activists continue to agitate and the State Department is conducting a review.

And yesterday Financial Times columnist Michael Skapinker published an article calling for Apple to open its factories to outside inspection, comparing the situation to that faced by Nike in its factories in Asia in the late 1990s–an apt analogy. You can read it here. A thorough and balanced article by Forbes contributor Amy Westervelt–Tim Cook’s Challenge: Sorting Out Apple’s Chinese Supply Chain–is here.

You can read The Other Side of Apple, the Chinese NGOs’ report on Apple’s alleged environmental infringements, here. Storyteller and Apple fanboy Mike Daisey is performing his piece The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at the Sydney Opera House from September 24 – October 2 and at New York’s Public Theatre from October 11 – November 13. You can buy tickets for the Sydney performance here and New York’s here. The Sydney Morning Herald‘s just-published interview with Daisey is here.

Note: This article is one of a regular series, Bass Notes, on ethics, accountability and sustainability. Subscribe to Bass Notes and regular postings via email or RSS below.

As President Obama prepares to address a joint session of Congress on job creation and the state of the economy, he would do well to consider casting a light on the freight rail industry in his remarks. Freight rail? Freight rail–a surprising pocket of growth, investment, hiring and innovation in the much-maligned US infrastructure network.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, investor Warren Buffet saw it coming, when Berkshire Hathaway took full ownership of BNSF, the country’s second largest freight railway, in February 2010. Since then, the company, like the rest of the industry, has experienced double digit revenue expansion, thanks to rising coal, industrial and agricultural product volumes. Shippers are switching from road to rail as fuel prices and traffic congestion impact cost, efficiency and reliability of highway transport.

The well-funded, well-organized Association of American Railroads (AAR) has developed a web site–Freight Rail Works–that is a visual crib sheet for anyone looking to understand the basics of the freight rail industry and its positive role in the US economy. The charts and graphs, videos and slideshows–including one on transporting jumbo jet-sized wind turbines cross-country–are all terrific.

Perhaps the most striking point of all, in this era of tight federal and state budgets: the rail industry pays much of its own way, reinvesting 40 cents of every dollar to maintain and improve its own tracks and equipment. This year’s expected combined industry outlays: in excess of $12 billion. Over the last five years total capital investment has exceeded $40 billion.

Look beyond the freight rail industry’s own finely-tuned pitch materials, there’s plenty more evidence of game-changing innovation, effective collaborative partnerships and successful, scrappy entrepreneurial risk-taking leading to job growth and community building around the country.

There’s RailEx, a state-of-the-art refrigerated train and warehouse facility that allows east coast, west coast and even non-US farmers to move goods cross-country by rail in five days or less. In 2008, two years after it first came online, RailEx introduced a second west coast location in California. Earlier this summer it increased the frequency of services running out of this facility. RailEx’s hauling: provided by Union Pacific and CSX.

Then there’s GE’s Evolution Series Locomotives, a cornerstone of the company’s ecomagination product line. Demand has been so strong that the company is opening a new $95 million manufacturing, service and repair facility in Texas. There’s FreightCar America a Chicago-based company with manufacturing facilities in Roanoke, Virgina that recently re-opened, hiring to accomodate growing demand for its railcars in the wake of the industry’s surge.

There’s 550 regional and shortline railroads that have expanded their track network from 8,000 to 45,000 miles over the last three decades, many, such as the Iowa Interstate, leveraging off of their rich heritage to build customers, loyalty, business. And there’s the public-private National Gateway Initiative to expand and upgrade essential east coast rail infrastructure, leading to CSX’s just-announced $59 million investment in Columbus, Ohio’s intermodal freight terminal.

While the freight rail industry may not have the flashy sex appeal of high-speed passenger rail service, it employs 170,000 people, generates over $50 billion in revenue annually and keeps the US economy moving. These days, nothing could be sexier than that.

In July the Financial Times ran a multi-part story on the renaissance of the US freight rail industry. You can watch the video portion of the story here (subscription required). The Infrastructurist, a highly readable blog devoted to infrastructure projects and policy, co-founded and published by Alexander Jutkowitz and Mitch Stoller of consulting firm Group SJR, is here. Progressive Railroading‘s annual freight rail conference, RailTrends, will be held November 1-2 in New York. Industry leaders, including Ed Hamberger, President of the AAR, and Joseph Szabo, Head of the Federal Railroad Administration, will participate.

Photo: Chris Lastovich

I am a little bit obsessed. Which is exactly what Elizabeth Cutler, Julie Rice, Denise Mari and Holly Thaggard want me to be.

These four women are founders of three great companies whose terrific products make my life a little bit better, easier, happier and healthier. And they do it with flare, smarts and style–which, naturally, I love. It keeps me–and many others–coming back for more. Cutler and Rice co-founded New York-based spinning studios, SoulCycle, Mari founded raw, organic, vegan food purveyor, Organic Avenue, and Thaggard created sensitive skin-, workout-friendly sunscreen Supergoop!.

What they share: each has identified their one thing–creating an exceptional spinning experience, flavorful, healthy food, safe sun protection–and they execute against it relentlessly, flawlessly, holistically–obsessively. From SoulCycle’s high-energy teachers to its logo-embossed bikes, from Organic Avenue’s consistently delicious juices to its brightly-colored delivery rickshaws, from Supergoop!’s anti-oxidant-infused wipes to their bright, yellow packaging, every detail is carefully considered.

What this creates: an ability to charge premium prices and grow at a rapid clip through a recession. SoulCycle’s classes are $32.00 a session, a bottle of Organic Avenue juice is $10.00, a basic tube of Supergoop! sunscreen is $22.00. Since the start of 2010 SoulCycle has opened three studios with another coming next month, Organic Avenue will soon open its next New York outpost at Fifth Avenue and 8th Street and Supergoop! is quickly expanding into Europe and Australia.

What I love: that these three companies are founded, led by women.

A few of my favorite products? While I have never walked out of a SoulCycle session disappointed, for me, classes with Kym, Clare, MB and Kaili are always stand-out. Organic Avenue’s Young LOVE and Veggie Vibrance juices, Portobello Reuben Wraps and Blueberry Spirulina Smoothies are my repeat buys. And I swear by Supergoop!’s wipes and spray.

A CNBC clip from earlier this week, The SoulCycle Craze, featuring conversation with Elizabeth Cutler and Julie Rice is here. A MindBodyGreen interview with Denise Mari, discussing Organic Avenue’s raw food cleansing programs, is here. And an interview with Holly Thaggard is here–it’s a touch dated, but in it she discusses not only the evolution of Supergoop!’s business strategy, but also the process of initial product development and funding–worthwhile.

Finally, full disclosure: Holly’s brother–who is an investor in Supergoop!–and I are friends. Through him I’ve met Holly on her trips to New York from her home in Texas. Early on in the life of the company, I received a few samples–I’ve paid full-price ever since. Holly just tipped me to her newest product, the face serum–developed in conjunction with a Sydney-based skincare lab–looks fabulous, naturally, but I haven’t tried it yet.

This is a list to embolden.

Earlier this summer, I dipped my toe into the waters of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in an article entitled Love is the Single Bottom Line. As I wrote then, I’ve been following the evolution of the conversation about CSR for a number of years.

Over time I have come to conclude that the CEOs who take a truly responsible approach to their work simply get down to business, doing the right thing because it’s what they believe in, commit to. In their companies goodness is not a department, it is naturally embedded into every fiber of the organization.

These five books have influenced and bolstered my views. All are firmly rooted within the framework of capitalism, profit-making, girded by a passionate belief that companies run well are powerful forces for good in society. Three are written by CEO-founders of large, global enterprises. Two by investors (there’s overlap–Vanguard Group founder John Bogle is both).

They address the qualitative side of doing the right thing–the words stewardship, caring and long-term come up repeatedly–and, importantly, the bottom-line benefits of a values-driven approach to business. And they don’t sugar-coat the very real challenges associated with staying true to a higher set of principles, adhering to a moral imperative.

For every CEO–and especially those struggling with the often-burdensome elements of CSR or one of its many derivatives–taken together these five books bring it back to basics, simplifying and enlivening consideration of why–and how–to do the right thing.

1. Profit With Honor–Daniel Yankelovich

A 1946 graduate of Harvard, Daniel Yankelovich has tracked public opinion and social trends in the United States for the better part of five decades. Profit With Honor was published in 2006, in the wake of the Enron, World Com and other financial scandals of the early 2000′s.

Yankelovich opens with a quote from philosopher Alfred North Whitehead: A great society is a society in which its men of business think greatly of their functions. From there, he builds a strong case that business is at heart the keeper of social norms. When business abandons this role, society falters.

Neither a fan of regulatory-driven rehab nor of CSR, Yankelovich lays out a framework that he calls stewardship ethics as an alternative to the concept of shareholder value. It is grounded in caring, community and higher expectations of business. This is where the book is at its squishiest–the others on the list pick up its slack.

2. Enough–John C. Bogle

From the same generation as Yankelovich, Bogle is much-admired as a pillar of impeccable integrity in the investment community. Enough is his plea–and well made case–for a return to core human values in the wake of the second round of scandals and crises in the early 2000s. His thesis: good ethics is good business.

As both founder and investor he brings a unique perspective and credibility to his writing, in which he invokes Socrates, the founding fathers, Homer, Goethe–and Daniel Yankelovich. His number one rule for building great organizations: make caring the soul of the company. This, at its heart, is true CSR.

3. Profit for Life–Joseph H. Bragdon

Joseph Bragdon is a money manager for high net worth individuals. Published in 2006, Profit for Life is his very meaty consideration of both the management practices and investment performance of 60 global companies he has identified as Living Asset Stewards, companies whose cultures are driven by caring for living assets–people and nature–versus non-living–capital.

Inspired by systems thinkers Peter Senge, Arie de Geus and Fritjof Capra, it’s hard to overstate the value of this book: it is both unarguably hard-nosed and deeply heartfelt–polished and thorough–and it completely reframes consideration of the pursuit of profitability–from a necessary evil to a resource to be leveraged for the greater good. The book’s subtitle: How Capitalism Excels.

4. Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist–Ray C. Anderson

I mentioned Ray Anderson‘s book in my article Love is the Bottom Line. Picking up where Bragdon leaves off, Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist is Anderson’s first person account of leading Interface, the Georgia-based carpet manufacturing company he founded in 1974, on the pursuit of zero impact operations by 2020.

This is an engaging roll-up-your-sleeves, nuts-and-bolts guide to sweeping operational change. If you think it can’t be done, Anderson will convince you that it can–and should–and that, in fact, you’ll make money in the process. (Very sadly, Ray Anderson passed away from cancer earlier this month, a deeply felt loss.)

5. The Key Speech–Sir Ove Arup 

Rounding out the list is the text of a brief speech, rather than a book. I’ve mentioned global engineering group Arup in a number of my articles. The employee-owned, UK-based company was founded in 1946 by Anglo-Danish engineer Ove Arup. In 1970 Arup made a speech to his partners that remains a cornerstone of the group’s operating philosophy today.

It’s a quick read. Arup is down to earth, funny, pragmatic, and he nimbly addresses the challenge of navigating the tensions between conflicting operating ideals. He is also firmly committed to the idea that having a vision that encompasses moral principles binds a community–and a company–together. Arup was ahead of his time–or, perhaps, we’re circling back from where we came.

Today it’s harder and harder to separate consideration of doing the right thing from issues of environmental sustainability. Bragdon and Arup touch on it, Anderson’s tale is all about it. For further reading specifically on sustainability, the book that inspired Anderson’s quest is on my list: Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce. Similarly, more and more leaders are looking to nature as a source of inspiration for innovation and organizational design. Again, Bragdon and Anderson both reference this thinking. For that reason, Janine Benyus’ book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature is similarly on my list.

Note: This article was also published on Huffington Post on February 22, 2012. It is one of a series, Bass Notes, on ethics, accountability and sustainability. Subscribe to Bass Notes and other postings via email or RSS below.