I have been asked the two questions above many times prior to attending this year’s House of Beautiful Business in Lisbon. The event happened from 3rd to 8th November 2018. And it has been a week full of wonders, stories, mysteries and personalities.

This is what it tasted like:

• We discussed strategies for overcoming the limitations of being human… while celebrating the blessings of those limitations.
• We envisioned a future in which non-human intelligence will overtake our human one… while indulging in the abundance and legacy of human experiences, such as the art of gathering, the energy of preparing food, the warmth of spirituality and rituals or the existential meaning of the humanities.
• We architected ideas that will accelerate the world by a factor of x… while creating moments of absolute standstill, silence and inner calmness.
• We gave in to humbleness, even deep melancholy, facing the increasing burdens of our human responsibility for planet earth … while immersing ourselves into the infinite joy and lightness of play and the emotional sensation of inspiration.
• We applauded the genius of science, technology and reason… while praising the powers of the arts and demanding for a new religion — a religion of conversation.

So what is beautiful business after all?

Here is my humble attempt to provide a simple answer: the beauty of business lies in controversy.

‍Beautiful business runs on the energy that arises from contrast. It is fed on contradiction and polarisation.Thus, to me, the real questions are the following: what helps us to embrace an ever higher level of contradiction? How can we digest controversy fruitfully as individuals? How do we do this on an organisational scale? Or in other words: how can we translate tension into traction?If I were to choose one take-away from Lisbon it would be this: the arts and humanities will lead the way.