Lower Kindergarten Class Blog

Corporate Startup Summit, Zurich, Switzerland

An international platform was offered to Solomon as the keynote speaker about his work on Smart Villages at the upcoming Corporate Startup Summit in Zurich, Switzerland. Over three hundred senior executives and academics were inspired by Solomon’s message at the conference. His theme was – Moral values should be the foundation for Business Models, otherwise they are bound to fail. He observed this first hand from his grandmother, an entrepreneur who sold her products internationally from her village at a time when there was no power, internet, mobile phones, information, data, resources or platforms. Solomon will lend a voice to the people in the  downtrodden underserved markets for whom the global brands ignore. Driven by greed large company make products for the rich as they have deep pockets. At Berkeley, Solomon teaches that low margin business models based on high volume yield the same results. Firms often go after the low-hanging fruit as they lack patience implement the long-term vision which requires commitment to moral values and benevolent leadership.
He was invited by the executives of the conference sponsor (Migros) who read his book.  Migros is Switzerland’s largest retail company, its largest supermarket chain and largest employer. It is also one of the forty largest retailers in the world. It is structured in the form of a cooperative society, with more than two million members. Migros is founded in 1925 on moral values they still hold dear to this day. For  example they do not sell alcohol in their stores. His book was given away for 99 cents during the conference. “There is no better way to lift up the Name of Jesus to this sophisticated group of executives” Solomon said.