WEBVTT

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Hello, my name is Kevin Sara

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and I just saw on the tweet
that an American was going to speak.

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I don't like labels

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and I would also like to clarify
that I am American but I am also English.

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I was also born in Germany,

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I spent my childhood in Belgium,

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(Laughter)

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my children are half Chinese,

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and my business associates are Tunisians.

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(Applause)

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Well, what am I?
I am what?

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Audience: Human, human!

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Can one reduce reality, life,

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the interpretation of facts

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to tweets of 200 characters? 
At times it is very difficult.

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But I'll start by apologizing for all the mistakes 
in French that I'm going to make,

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I'm rather more English speaking,
but I was told

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that there were more French speakers
than English in the room.

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So, I'll do my best,
but from time to time,

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I'll have to give the words in English
when I can't find them in French.

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So, if we could start
with the first slide, I can't see it.

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Great!
What are we supposed to do to see it?

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Can you read anything there?

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Audience: No!

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OK, I think we need to turn on the lamp.

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So, the title of my presentation is:

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"Hannibal's elephants: what is their significance
to the Tunisia of today"

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Of course, we're talking about Hannibal, 
it's very easy, everyone knows who he was,

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especially in Tunisia,
but what's interesting

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is that everyone knows him
throughout the world!

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And why are we still talking 
about Hannibal?

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Is it because he crossed the Alps 
with his elephants?

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No, it's not as simple as that.

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In fact, what he did,
he made an extraordinary journey!

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And, a war,
he conducted an extraordinary war!

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He did not only cross the Alps 
with some elephants,

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but he conquered Spain, he crossed the Pyrenees, 
he crossed France,

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he crossed the Rhone with his elephants!

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He had to construct some special boats;
it was an extraordinary affair.

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And all this was with 40,000 men,
12,000 horses, cavalry

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and forty or so elephants.

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They arrived in northern Italy.

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And on arriving in northern Italy,

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the elephants sowed terror 
among the Romans.

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It was something they had never seen,
in any case arriving from the north.

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I think that they may have seen them sometimes 
with the Greeks in the south,

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but it was a quite astonishing 
tactical innovation.

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It was also an astonishing strategic innovation 
to arrive from where no one had arrived before.

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Can we have the next slide?

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Well, let's go back for a while
to antiquity and the history of Hannibal,

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and have a little look
at the historical context.

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Carthage was certainly
the centre of the Mediterranean world,

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it was just before the First Punic War,

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and she dominated the whole Mediterranean, 
due to its geographical position,

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half-way between East and West.
So, she was able to dominate

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all the commerce and dominate the seas.

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At that's a very interesting idea,
that geographical position,

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because that position has not changed.

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Tunisia remains at that position.

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Let us pass to the next slide.

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So, that war, what was,
as I called it, the innovation?

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It was certainly the journey: Spain, France and
the crossing of the Rhone and the Alps.

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And then, he deployed a tactical innovation,
the elephants, but also,

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there were a series of tactical innovations
in the way how he conducted the war.

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There are military historians who say 
that it was Hannibal

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who invented military strategy.

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He used tricks and tactics 
never seen before.

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For example, he used the mist on the lakes
for his strategic advantage.

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He used -- 
he attached torches to herds of cows

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and had them go to the other side

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so that the Romans thought that his armies 
were there where they were not.

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Before Hannibal,
battles were very simple and normally,

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they would choose quite flat, large fields,

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they would go to opposite ends of the field
and then attack each other.

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That was it, that was war 
and the techniques of war!

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And it is said that Hannibal, 
with an inferior force,

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he almost conquered the Roman Empire!

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But he was not completely successful,
he never -- he did not destroy Rome

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and volumes have been written about the reason:
perhaps he didn't have the support of Carthage,

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perhaps the battles for the cities
did not go well,

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there's a whole series of theories, 
but this is not what this presentation is about.

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So, I just want to ask you 
to remember 2 ideas:

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One: Hannibal was a strategic innovator,
and two: he was a tactical innovator.

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And the combination of the two was fatal.

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So, with these thoughts in mind,
I want to introduce you to my project

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which is a joint-venture project 
between Tunisia and Europe called TuNur.

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We are associate members of DESERTEC,

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and we think, all things considered,
we can produce solar electricity

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more cheaply in the Sahara,
where there is plenty of sun,

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more than elsewhere.
And that that electricity

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can be produced with new technologies

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at a price sufficiently low
to compete with nuclear,

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even possibly to compete
with natural gas and oil.

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Also, we noticed recently,

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it is competitive with offshore wind.

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So the concept of TuNur is very simple:

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we construct large solar power plants 
in the desert.

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And what is very important about 
the strategic innovation

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is that it is an integrated concept.

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We have the power plants with an undersea cable 
which supplies the market

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and we sell the electricity in Europe
which will currently pay more for it

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than we would be able to get for it
in Tunisia.

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So, these sales support the whole development
of a Tunisian industry.

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We use our elephants, so to speak,

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the CSP (Concentrating Solar Power) with storage.

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If we use standard solar energy

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that we see on roofs, it's called the EP,

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the problem with it is, that when the sun goes down,
there's no more electricity --

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and that's just the time 
when we usually have the greatest need,

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for example, for lighting.

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The CSP allows the storage of energy 
to be able to generate electricity

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after the sun sets. 
That's a very important concept.

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And that, that is our tactical innovation.
Our strategic innovation is the cable.

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So, there we have it.
We think that we also have a winning formula

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with the idea of having -- truly a new idea,

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where we have a cable as far as northern Europe,

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that actually goes to northern Italy.

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For sure, a priori, we might say 
that we might use a short

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and simple cable to Sicily, 
but it is not where the market is.

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It is necessary to think clearly
about what the objectives are.

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The long-term objectives are to create 
an industry in Tunisia

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that can make sales,
that can compete with Russian gas,

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that can compete with French nuclear,

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that can compete with German offshore wind.

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So, it is necessary to go where the market is.

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And if we can lay a cable to northern Italy,

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that is where the European grid is,
the core of the European grid.

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And from Italy we can go to Switzerland,
we can go to France, we can go everywhere.

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So that is really a strategic move.

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So, we are trying to combine
the tactical innovation with the CSP

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and the storage to be able to provide electricity
after the sun has gone down,

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with the strategic innovation to lay a cable 
all the way to northern Italy.

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The next slide.

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So, to summarize, what can we
learn from these stories?

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Of antiquity and the parallel with 
what we are doing now?

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The first lesson is, that is for sure,
the importance of innovation.

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Of imagination and innovation.

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The imagination does not cost anything!

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We need to be creative, we need to have ideas.
I think that several people spoke about that.

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Imagination is key, creativity is key,
to have new ideas is absolutely key.

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But ideas are empty if there is no context, 
if there is no leadership.

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And that is absolutely essential.

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Leadership - that was very funny
in preparing this speech,

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I tried to find it ...

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I looked in the dictionary,

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what is the translation of leadership in French?

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Audience: Leadership!

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KS : No, a French word, please!

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Audience: (French) Governance.

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KS: (French) Governance?

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I tried to find it but couldn't.

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I looked in all the dictionaries
but I could not find it,

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because, in fact, there is no exact translation.

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Leadership, in fact, is the art of planning, 
the planning of resources,

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the management, the direction, 
all combined in one.

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And this is an extremely important concept
because without leadership,

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there is no innovation.

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There is only imagination and ideas.

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Excuse me?

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Audience: A pioneer.

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KS : Pioneer, yes, but ... pioneer...

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That is another concept. 
That is a leader who is an innovator.

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That is a concept, pioneer, 
it could be that too.

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But leadership is the ability 
to lead men and women

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and to inspire them.

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That is an extremely important concept.

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And this is what a military historian said
was one of the greatest Hannibal's qualities;

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it was not only that he was
a tactical and strategic innovator,

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but it was really his leadership qualities.

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And his leadership qualities 
resulted in the fact

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that he never asked any man or woman

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to do something that he wouldn't do personally.

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And everyone knew it.

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That is "leading by example" 
and it is extremely important as a concept.

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Also, leadership requires knowing 
how to motivate.

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It is said that Hannibal was a cruel man.

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I'm going to tell you a little story

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to show that, perhaps, 
he was a cruel man,

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but at the same time he understood

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psychology very well,
and the concept of leadership.

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On arriving in northern Italy,
before his first big battle in Italy,

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he had some Swiss prisoners. 
And he wanted to have a show

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to motivate his troops to win

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and he asked his Swiss prisoners
if there were two of them

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willing to fight to the death.

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And the winner would be set free
and could return to Switzerland.

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He had 2 volunteers. 
They fought in front of Hannibal's troops

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and, of course, one died and the other
was overjoyed and was able to return.

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It was simply a lesson,
very, very simple for his troops:

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you win or you're dead!

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And he had a whole series of tactics 
with his men

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to motivate them, and a mutiny 
was never recorded,

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because one of the major problems 
in the Antiquity,

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was that the troops would often go against 
the military commander

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and that caused problems 
as you can imagine.

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Hannibal never had that problem.

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The third concept 
with which I would like to leave you,

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is that the geographical position of Tunisia 
has not changed,

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and you have real competitive advantages

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being in the middle of the Mediterranean. 
I think we alluded before,

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to the fact that this growth area 
was on the Mediterranean and in Africa.

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Tunisia has the history to be 
a key player in this area.

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And this was not the case
at the time of Carthage.

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Carthage did not have 
a lot of territory

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but she made alliances.

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Hannibal went with the Spaniards,
Libyans and Gauls to attack Italy;

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he did not have many soldiers 
from Carthage.

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And it was his leadership qualities,
his ability to motivate

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and manage a multinational force,
which made ...

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which allowed him to win!

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And these qualities exist!

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These ideas are still valid today.

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There is no difference. At the level of ideas,
nothing has changed.

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One is always left with the importance
of imagination and innovation,

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the importance of leadership 
and the geographical location of Tunisia.

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And if I can add:

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there is the idea we should turn 
to the BRIC countries,

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to China, to Russia,

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because that's where the growth is,

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but just seeing that 
Europe is weakening now,

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isn't it there that there is a true opportunity?

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And I leave you with that thought.
Thank you very much.

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(Applause)