Ian Goldin: SA must adjust to world's seismic change, a new battle of ideas

Davos in January is full of fascinating people with illuminating insights. Among the best I’ve been exposed to this year is Oxford University Professor Ian Goldin’s thesis the Fourth Industrial Revolution (or, as some prefer, the Second Machine Age) should rather be called The New Renaissance. Because, like the last period of seismic changes from which emerged the genius of Da Vinci, Galileo and Michelangelo, we now live an age where ideas are paramount and creativity is king. Goldin, a South African who returned from exile to run the Development Bank of SA before moving back into academia, was a star attraction in a packed WEF session examining the history of industrial revolutions. I grabbed him afterwards for a ten minute chat – and prodded him about how these momentous changes will affect his mean homeland. Goldin has some strong opinions on what needs to be done to avoid becoming irrelevant. He didn’t pull any punches.