Innovation is a hot topic; innovation is happening everywhere. Innovation is "romantic", reaching for the stars, against all odds, solving the problem no one thought possible. Most CEOs would not characterize survival as "romantic". Innovate or perish; the mantra, the truth, plain, stark, cold...

Financial panics and crashes have become an item of familiarity to many nations around the world over more than several centuries. If history has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that we can learn from the past with the aim of improving the future. In 1997 a chain of events was set off...