Speaker Details

Biography

Francois is a Special Advisor of the SHINE Program at the Center for Health and Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Founder of Sauer and Associates, LLC, a Leawood Kansas based consulting firm that, as a catalyst, helps executives manifest to the fullest their own talents. Francois has expertise in systems thinking, human relations, and international operations (Latin America and Europe). As a catalyst, author, philosopher and scientist, his proven problem solving approaches are both innovative and pragmatic. Author of Relearn, Evolve, and Adapt: An Essay to Integrate Creative Imagination with Socially Conditioned Thought and Behavior. This book demonstrates how we are the architects of our lives, and become what we think about. (http://relearnevolveandadapt.com/). Over the past three decades Francois has delivered organizational improvements and profitable business growths. He has served as a CEO, executive, adviser, and consultant to large enterprises as well as start-up ventures. His tenure has included Banamex (Health Services executive), DEC and AT&T, and CEO of Cerner International. He excels in aligning multiple constituencies, fostering collaboration between diverse groups, and integrating human capital, information capital, and organization capital. These strengths allow him to effectively deliver the organization's customer value proposition and the targeted financial results. He is adroit at creating the requisite human relationships to integrate technology with the business processes necessary to promote organizational improvement and profitable business growth. In the business world Francois is a board member of CritiTech and CrossInnovation and an adviser to two startup companies: Flow Forward and Metactive. In the non-for-profit world, Francois is a member of the System Dynamics Society (MIT), the Supercourse (distributed by WHO) and the Kickwood Society of the American Red Cross, as well as a board member of Baker University and a former board member of the KC American Red Cross and the KC International Relations Council. Some of Francois accomplishments are: In Mexico, he redesigned, implemented, and operated Banamex’s healthcare delivery system covering 100,000 lives. The new system increased customer satisfaction from 50 percent to 80 percent and concurrently cut average costs per individual by 50 percent. This level of cost reduction was sustained and documented for five years. Subsequently, more than half of Mexico’s banking system adopted this business model. In Europe, he implemented, as a member of a five-person strategic team, the restructuring of Digital-Europe (31,000 people) from a geographical model to an industry-focused model. This new structure enabled the company to better recognize and respond to the specific needs of each industry segment and was accepted by European labor unions. As a result, the volume of sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa exceeded U.S. sales. In US, he served as one of the five initial developers of the Global Health Net (GHNet), an international effort led by Dr. Ron LaPorte that uses the power of information technology to improve education on prevention in Public Health. Launched in 1993 at a meeting of the Pan American Health Organization, GHNet (www.pitt.edu/~super1/) is now the largest free preventive health education website distributed by WHO.

Abstract

Well-being and system thinking: a path to peace and harmony in the world

Vint C. Serf proposed that the “Research Methods at the Library of Alexandria”, the project RMLA, is: “Science for Scientists to build Interdisciplinary Science”. As Dr. Ismail Serageldin said in “The Challenge”: “There is a need to have a sense of a credible future vision that maps a path to a future where we are better off, socially, economically and politically. That vision, which the French refer to as a “Projet de société” must be of a practical future as opposed to a utopian ideal, and must also be perceived as attainable.” Where do we want to go? • RMLA, on one hand, is about leveraging available IT technologies to digitalize knowledge within the context of what Dr. Ismail Serageldin describes as a “Meta Web” that connects intelligences. • RMLA, on the other hand, is a scientific network of networks to create synergy between top minds in research, in applied research, and in technology. Dr. Ron LaPorte and his team are committed to facilitate the access, development and sharing of interdisciplinary knowledge by stimulating this interconnectivity between scientists and researchers, from a multi and interdisciplinary perspective. How do we plan to get there? • The digitalization of knowledge offers us two opportunities: 1. To go from the “papyrus” to the “digital” with for example a PowerPoint presentation. 2. To tame the complexity of the available information and knowledge to a level that a scientist can productively process it. • The RMLA, with the building of a scientific network, also offers an ethical context for scientists and the world community to improve their state of “wellbeing”, providing a set of values to expand emotional and social intelligence. 1. RMLA asserts that it is not enough for a scientist to be academically competent. The scientist also needs to have access to an environment that facilitates the development of a mindset characterized by a commitment to make a positive contribution to society illuminating the world of sciences. For this reason the “values of science”, described by Ismail Serageldin at the NAS annual meeting in 2011, are critical to ensure the public welfare and wellbeing of the scientists. RMLA, when fostering international and interdisciplinary research between million of scientists, is a project that concurrently leverages “learning, tolerance, dialogue and understanding”. Today, in this non-linear world, when studying complex systems, one pitfall is that scientists can only develop an “approximate knowledge”. This knowledge then needs to be constantly validated and refined through experiments. A complete state of bio, psycho and social wellbeing is then key for scientists to be able to: relearn, evolve and adapt. This flexible mindset is in sharp contrast with the rigid mindset of the individual who believes that he or she possesses the “absolute and perfect knowledge”. What actions will we take now? Today, we need to develop additional communication, cooperation and coordination to include academic and research communities with programs such as for example SHINE, from the Harvard School of Public Health. Programs such as SHINE will help amplify the current RMLA synergy between top minds in research, in applied research, and in technology. How will we measure success? • The global success for RMLA is to create a technological platform and a social context, promoting the values of sciences that help scientists to manifest to the fullest their talents and to concurrently contribute their best to peace and harmony in the world, finding "Net Positive Solutions" to improve "Sustainable Health" considering that a complete state of bio, psycho and social “wellbeing” is the capability to adapt to changes to best protect the inner essence of our ‘being-ness” or “who we are”.