..The secrets to a millionaire's success

There's no real practical reason to ask "who wants to be a millionaire?" because the only people who won't put their hand up are religious types who've taken vows of poverty and those who are already multi-millionaires. Unfortunately, there's a big gulf between those who want it and those who do the things to make it happen. 

Based on recent statistics on UK household income, millionaire-dom is not something that's going to happen for most people, even with the dubious benefits of inflation. An adult earning the median level of income (£26,200 a year in 2011) and saving an impressive 20% of that would need almost 200 years to save £1 million (excluding taxes and investment gains). It's pretty clear, then, that a would-be millionaire has to think outside the boundaries of "median" experience.

Start a business

There are certainly people who can become millionaires by working for other people, but this is not an especially good route to choose. The trouble with trying to become a millionaire by working for other people is that there are always other people siphoning off the value of whatever you produce. Say you're a hotshot salesman – although you're going to get your cut, a lot of the value you create is going to get split among a broader pool of workers, managers and the owner(s) of the business.

The Davos Agenda

From 25 January the hotels, meeting rooms, bars, restaurants, and most remaining nooks and crannies in the small Swiss town of Davos will be filled with leaders of all descriptions from around the world joining the great annual debate on the state of the world otherwise known as the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting.

The theme for the 2012 meeting is “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models”.  “The necessary conceptual models do not exist from which to develop a systemic understanding of the great transformations taking place now and in the future,” says the WEF’s Klaus Schwab. “It is hubris to frame this transition as a global management problem of integrating people, systems and technologies.  It is an indisputable leadership challenge that ultimately requires new models, bold ideas and personal courage to ensure that this century improves the human condition rather than capping its potential.”

Taking part in the debates during Davos will be London Business School’s Sir Andrew Likierman, Costas Markides and Francesca Cornelli and Lynda Gratton.  They will be rubbing shoulders with the usual array of celebrities, politicians, artists and scientists.  Those speaking include Murray Gell-Mann the Nobel laureate physicist; the deep sea diver Sylvia Earle; champion of emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman; Tom Friedman, author of The World is Flat; Harvard’s Michael Porter and many more.

An alternative agenda


But what should be on the agenda as the greatest minds and the most influential leaders sit down to debate?  “If I had to pick one topic, it would be growth,” says London Business School professor Rajesh Chandy. “The particular questions around growth would be different for developed and developing countries, however. For developed countries, the question is: How can we create substantial growth again? For developing countries, the question is: How can we create growth in a way that benefits as many of our people as possible?”

Apple wrestles with its 'China problem'

CUPERTINO, Calif. –  Apple began last week by basking in record quarterly profits, but then ended the week in a public relations retreat after reports of exploited workers in factories in China assembling its hot-selling iPads and iPhones.

For now, the media spotlight is on Apple and its Taiwanese contract supplier Foxconn. But China's leaders will also be shifting uncomfortably as the gaze of the international media turns to the harsh underbelly of its manufacturing economy.

Behind China's remarkable economic progress toil an estimated 120 million migrant workers, typically living and working in austere factory complexes.

Two decades into China's industrial transformation, questions are being asked about how much responsibility authorities shoulder for its hukou (household registration) system that effectively institutionalizes migrant workers as second-class citizens in their own country.

But for now, it is Apple in the firing line. The New York Times ignited media interest after a story on unsafe working conditions, as well as seven-hour days and cramped dormitories at Apple's Foxconn supplier in China.

The public relations drubbing was ramped up another degree by Jon Stewart's Comedy Central, with a disturbing "Fear Factory" satire on the lot of the workers behind Apple's prodigious profits.

The problem for Apple is that beneath the humor and the shock headlines, there is enough truth about worker conditions in mainland Chinese factories to offend many of its customers and ultimately damage its premium brand.