006 – Mats Larsson – The Blind Guardians of Ignorance: Covid-19, Sustainability, and Our Vulnerable

Interview with Mats Larsson author of: The Blind Guardians of Ignorance: Covid-19, Sustainability, and Our Vulnerable. A handbook for change leaders, young and old. Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blind-Guardians-Ignorance-Sustainability-Vulnerable/dp/1788360486  MATS’S WEB LINKS: http://getinstitute.com/mats-r-larsson/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mats-larsson-4098392/ Podcast Page: https://www.joshuasutherland.com/podcast-006/  Timestamps: 00:00 Intro – Music 00:10 Intro – Mats Larsson 00:53 Explain the book title 01:37 What are the challenges for the future? 03:41 Sustainability is not about the environment? Peak oil? 06:12 Book structure. 1. Age of Ignorance. 2. Driving the Change. 3. Starting the Transformation. 08:34 The Age of Ignorance. Covid-19 exposes production challenges? Economic growth challenges? How to maintain growth? 16:20 What is the end state? Where do we want society to go? 18:46 Who is working on the economic research for stable state economies? 20:04 Why not follow Elon Musk to Mars? 22:59 Taking for granted luxuries of the modern world? Production systems are fragile? 25:46 How does Covid-19 change your thinking on these topics? 30:08 Efficiency removes buffers, but we need buffers for resilience? 32:31 Economic measures of resilience? 36:46 Growth model is in the human spirit? In our DNA? 40:16 “A handbook” for change leaders. What is a handbook and who is a change leader? 45:10 Change management. How slow change can be in large companies. Can we make such big changes in a quick time? Like WW2? Examples of these large endeavours. 54:13 Does IT technology not make things easier now to meet the challenges? 57:48 People are now experts. No one is looking at the big picture and addressing the big picture problems? 1:01:11 People are more interested in sustainability now, but are Greta’s environmental protests useful? What should people do? 1:05:45 Large companies often have people with the skills needed. Business managers. 1:06:38 How did Mats get into this area? 1:10:06 Change in public awareness of the ideas over the last 30 years 1:14:07 How are these projects financed? 1:17:05 Electric vehicles. What is your advice for auto executives and governments? 1:24:24 Governments need to finance breakthrough technologies? 1:27:40 Do we need competition to tackle the challenges of the future? USA vs. China vs. EU ? 1:37:30 Tesla created their own infrastructure for electric vehicle charging. Good idea?1:41:36 We need people to run experiments of business models for sustainability?  1:48:35 What are the key points you would like a reader to take away from reading your book? 1:53:36 Rate to convert conventional vehicles to electric vehicles 2:00:25 How to get the book. When it is out? What is the cover like? 2:02:26 Final thoughts 2:04:03 Contact details