BY: Liliana Rocio Suarez, Senior Editor For World Liberty TV

The World of Business Ideas (WOBI) kicked off in New York today with more than 2,000 participants and presentations from disruptive, global thought leaders. This is WOBI’s 13th annual business forum and this year’s conference theme is “Be Beta,” exploring the concept of consistent innovation as strategy. In a world where emerging markets, technologies and trends challenge companies and leaders to grow, only those who can adapt and anticipate will thrive.

The 2016 event is being held at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, a world-renowned venue that is associated with elite performances from the top artists around the world.

This year’s conference brings together a dynamic roster of speakers whose startups, designs and insights have changed the business landscape. Pioneer of the Lean Start Up movement Eric Ries started the day off, followed by a world-class lineup of World Business Forum speakers, including Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai; Amy Cuddy, social psychologist and Harvard Business School professor, Vijay Govindarajan, Coxe Distinguished Professor at Tuck at Dartmouth and Marvin Bower Fellow at Harvard Business School; and JB Straubel, co-founder and Chief Technical Officer at Tesla.

The second day’s featured speakers will include Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford Motor Company; Andre Agassi, tennis champion and philanthropist; and Daymond John, founder, president and CEO of FUBU and co-star of ABC’s Shark Tank, among others.

“The World Business Forum presents two days of insights to transform your company or project. For instance, to small business owners constantly facing challenges and trying to survive, WOBI aims to be a source of inspiration. Sometimes we believe a disruptive idea must come from our own thoughts because we are the ones who better know our product but, as it turns out, great ideas, many times, come from the outside. As a leader, the challenge is to inspire the team. This is a recurring subject matter at WOBI.” says Gustavo Barcia, CEO of WOBI.

Eric Ries, author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Start Up: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, focused his remarks on how to create order from chaos and how to keep up with the accelerating pace of change. Ries is closely associated with the Lean Six Sigma business management model.

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, addressed the conference remotely. She apologized for not being able to attend in person, but indicated she “has homework to do for school and could not take the time to travel.” Yousafzai has been campaigning for the rights of girls to receive an education since the age of 10. Even after a traumatic life event Yousafzai still found the strength to continue the fight for the rights of others. Her bravery and courage has not gone unnoticed as she is honored throughout the world. She encourages others to stay true to their beliefs even during the darkest hours.

Also presenting on the second day will be Daymond John of ABC’s Shark Tank. Attendees will hear insights from John, who at 18 years of age was a waiter at a Red Lobster who set his personal goal to be a millionaire by 22. Beginning by selling hats in the street, John learned – through trial and error and several different ventures, the lessons required to create a new venture called FUBU (For Us By Us) into T-shirts and sports clothes. John’s brand soared to international acclaim when rapper and actor LL Cool J used some of their clothes as his wardrobe in a series of television ads. In a matter of weeks, orders for their product increased dramatically. The brand is worth more than $6 billion today, and is known and sold around the world.

The annual World Business Forum is a production of WOBI, and past conferences have featured a wide array of distinguished speakers including President Bill Clinton, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and Virgin CEO and founder Richard Branson.

ABOUT WOBI: WOBI (World of Business Ideas) is a business content hub featuring the world’s most influential business thought leaders and doers. Through our events, television channel, print magazine and online, we are an unparalleled source of insight and inspiration. For more than two decades we have been serving all those restless, curious minds looking to transform ideas into projects and projects into businesses. Our mission is to create transformation experiences dedicated to building better people, better business, and a better world.

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