He had a dream: “seven cows came out of the river and stood there eating grass. They were healthy, good-looking cows. Then seven more cows came out of the river and stood on the bank of the river by the healthy cows. But these cows were thin and looked sick. The seven sick cows ate the seven healthy cows.” And Pharaoh was troubled because none of his thinkers, strategists and astrologers could interpret this dream.
Ancient Egypt was unrivaled in knowledge and wealth. It had the best “universities” with the finest thinkers. When Moses was called to lead the Israelites and he appeared before his brethren, they marveled because he had studied under the Pharaohs. Egypt was the home of the world’s greatest leadership and management system. The Pharaoh’s conceived and built engineering wonders, and executed things which remain wonders even in our modern world.
They called Joseph and he interpreted the dream: “It means that you’re going to have seven lean years eventually, but the good news is you’ll have seven good years first.” On the strength of this interpretation, Egypt planned its economy for the next 14 years. In anecdotal non-Biblical data, Egypt was the only country during those years which got things right; others had issues.
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Across Africa, we have many modern Josephs: your crude oil will run dry in 30 years; your diamond mines will lose value in 30 years, etc. What are the leaders doing since the dreams have been interpreted? We have many interpreters today but we do not have great planners and implementers of visions. Pharaoh did not just plan, he also executed the plan, and when the famine came, he was able to ensure his people did not suffer.
In your company, what are you doing on those dreams of market changes (petro-yuan, ChatGPT, etc) which have been interpreted by the head of strategy? Learn from Pharaoh: he received the message, and he executed on the message. #action
Source: Genesis 41
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Those who ate food meant for children cannot be asked to plan for anyone’s future, because they are already indebted heavily to the future.
For organizations, the pressure of quarterly earnings and financial statements can corrupt best strategic plans, and at the end abandonment becomes the new order.
Seers and interpreters still abound, it remains for those with power to listen to what the spirit is saying…
Indeed, they need to listen and execute missions from dreams.