In Conversation with Joe Zammit-Lucia

I met Joe over a decade ago when he began a pharma consulting firm with offices in New York, Cambridge (UK), and Tokyo. We worked together immediately before and after 9/11, with six feet of ashes piled on balconies in the financial district where he was located. After selling the company, he moved back to Europe (he currently lives in London) and delved into his interests in environmentalism, politics, and business. His beliefs, which he’s documented and substantiated in books such as The New Political Capitalism, The Death of Liberal Democracy? And Backlash: Saving Globalization from Itself, include the contrarian views (no wonder I like him so much) that one of the greatest myths is that government and business are on parallel and separate courses, never to meet. He sees resolving our tough issues today as dependent on government and business synergy and strategy. We talk here about the “end of an era” of stability: working hard, being promoted, providing for the family, knowing that the next day will be like the current one. From a great, common, shared belief system we’ve entered an age of diverse and varied beliefs and the need to reconcile differences and work together. Yet the premise today is often “I’m right and, therefore, you’re inferior, so I not only have to win but you have to lose.” Joe and I will discuss how a synergy of business and government can help to overcome the moral narcissism currently keeping us apart.