What is Xecutives.net?
Xecutives.net is much, a social network, an online magazine, a contemporary witness program, a source of inspiration and first-hand information on often complex topics, which unfortunately are superficially treated in other media. Furthermore, Xecutives.net is an absolutely independent institution. Interviews are not censored or corrected in favour of our or anybody’s opinion. The texts are authentic – as long as people do not denigrate other people, the texts are not corrected prior to publication regarding their content. This approach of guaranteed fidelity enables an unhindered and unfiltered transfer of knowledge.
Who is behind Xecutives.net?
Xecutives.net was founded by Christian Dueblin and Dr. Joe Amberg in 2007, and is the serendipitous result of an Executive MBA course at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Christian’s diploma thesis dealt with the question of how social networks affect the careers of business representatives, containing several interviews with top management personalities. Christian was repeatedly asked by friends to transcribe his findings from encounters also with other interesting people. Christian has been involved in management and music issues since his early years as a Inhouse Counsel, entrepreneur and pianist. It is therefore not surprising that these topics are constantly being addressed. Film and music have played an important role in his life and many interesting encounters and friendships have taken place. All this resulted in the Xecutives.net project.
Is there a special theme?
On closer inspection, there are common themes that thread through all the interviews on Xecutives.net. Most interviews deal with extraordinary events and facts. They are often about management and Switzerland, or topics with difficult backgrounds, which are thoroughly explained by specialists. Interview partners are selected on the basis of personal encounters, as well as recommendations from other interview partners or people interested in a topic. Film and music play a special role. Christian himself has been playing the piano since he was a child. After encounters with jazz legend Joe Tuner, whom Christian often visited in Paris in his early years, it was clear to him that he would like to become a Stride Pianist as well. It is an old piano style, also called Harlem Stride. Find out more about this piano style in the interviews with music legends such as Hazy Osterwald, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dick Hyman and Buddha Scheidegger.
How do you chose an interview partner?
The choice of interview partners is generally not a matter of chance. Upon scrutiny, the connections between the interview partners and their statements with other interview partners and their own statements demonstrate this. That is why Xecutives.net has been compared with the well-known Foundation Beyeler in Riehen near Basel, where images are arranged in a room so that they can communicate and correspond with each other. Ernst Beyeler consciously arranged his picture collection and left nothing to chance. Indeed, all interviews are connected in a special way.
How are interviews being conducted?
As a rule, the interviews are conducted directly with the interviewees. In some cases, calls are made via telephone or Skype. Sometimes interview partners prefer to have more time and leisure, so as to answer questions with greater deliberation in writing. This is accepted by Xecutives.net, since it makes it easier for the interviewee to approve the final interview result. Incidentally, this is the most common form of interviewing in the mainstream media today. However, most of the interviews were conducted directly and personally with the interviewees.
Xecutives.net believes that the genre of the interview is one of the most truthful ways to get to the bottom of things. The interview allows you to ask additional questions, which are often more relevant to the reader than the main interview topic. The personal conduct of an interview allows conclusions to be drawn about the interviewees, whose responses need to be read between the lines. As Norman Brown once said, the meaning of things is not in the things but between them. This is also true for many interviews: Some of them comprise a total different meaning, when they are read in the context of other interviews.
In difficult times when it is often not easy to get to the bottom of the truth, the interview seems to be a most effective way to get first-hand information on important and intriguing topics. Xecutives.net does not pursue any political or economic goals. The Xecutives.net program can be considered philanthropic in nature. The many responses and retransmissions of our content from readers all over the world, and the fact that Xecutives.net content is often discussed on other media platforms, demonstrate that it is always possible to inspire and galvanize people with exciting topics and new ways of thinking.
Are there unpublished interviews, interviews that did not work?
Xecutives.net has so far conducted more than 300 interviews. Some of them are not (yet) published or are published in books, other documents, or other Websites, some of them made-to-order for private use, such as interviews with grandparents for their grandchildren, or with interviewees who want to share their opinion, but have no interest in appearing in the media.
There are different factors behind these “not works”. It might be that a request for an interview results in the conclusion, that no good result can be achieved. Then the interview project is dropped. It can also happen, that an interviewee does not agree with the “sound” of an interview, which is very important. The sound depends on the interviewee and what he tells Xecutives.net. Sometimes the interview partner agrees with the content, but not with the style, the sound, the whole package. In such situations he or she does not feel ”cosy.” Then, either the needed tone/feeling can be achieved with corrective work, or the interview will be dropped.
It has also occurred, that an interviewee changed his statements from the interview in such a way that the final text had nothing more to do with the original interview. Such interviews are not published. It also sometimes comes to light, that interview partners or potential interview partners are only interested in promoting a new book, a new record or they want to sell something. In these cases Xecutives.net reserves the right to drop an interview project, even if the contract partner is famous. Such conversations often lack depth and openness, which is not the attitude and approach of Xecutives.net. Xecutives.net is interested in profound content and does not want to sell anything. Xecutives.net wants instead to share good ideas and inspiration, ideally regarding interesting and complex topics.
What distinguishes a good social network?
In a meeting with Christian Dueblin American author John Walter posed the question above. Christian’s answer is based on his Executive MBA thesis at University of St. Gallen. Christian answered: “Social networks have always existed. Looking back, aristocratic families that headed their own hierarchical networks stand out. Over centuries most of them have lost their accumulated power. Entrepreneurial networks are important today. A good and well-known example is the WEF in Davos in Switzerland. The Roman Catholic Church was and still is a large network, remaining hierarchical and centralized rather than democratized, decentralized and distributed like so many modern networks, but losing credibility.
An outstanding characteristic of the legacy networks is their exclusivity. The WEF again is a good actual example: its selection process is brilliant; and furthermore Klaus Schwab is a perfect host, a great networker quality. The more exclusive a social network is and can become the more power it can accrue and the more influence it can wield and consequently the better it can work, since it possesses considerable leverage. But there is also a risk of being misunderstood as an elite network, or secret conspiratorial society, as the Trilateral Commission and the Bildenberg Group are often viewed. The WEF is on the edge of being understood as such too.“
However, if a network loses exclusivity and opens its doors to too many people, as some social networks (e.g. Rotary, Free Masons, Round Table, Kiwanis, Lions) did in recent years, there is a danger that people will enter networks that are not yet viable or that have nothing to say or to contribute. Some people might use such a social network to develop their personality and to profit. This is detrimental and damages a network, because the network depends on people who are already developed in terms of personality as well as intellectually. First idea and motivation is never profit, but trust. Whoever needs a social network in order to become someone and to profit is toxic for a network. This is what happens regarding electronic networks and politics.
However, there are great personalities working in favor of such social networks. Xecutives.net does support projects led by such networks, especially the efforts to eradicate Polio by Rotary. This project deserves the utmost respect. PD Dr. med. Urs Herzog described the project in two Xecutives.net interviews.
What about electronic networks?
Again, based on Christian’s thesis and speeches: Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn – all electronic networks -, are good examples of non-exclusive networks. Too many people with irrelevant information about everything make such a network useless in the eyes of network specialists when it comes to credibility, trust, entrepreneurial decisions or investments. The expression „network“ does not fit for such networks, it is more about telephone books and sharing information and functions, which is fine, but by and large only the network managers and shareholders as well as some companies actually profit from such networks. They earn the hell of a lot of money with the help of the masses.
Most members do not receive an added value, even though they may think they get an added value. This is a bit like running around with a T shirt advertising Coke or whatever. It is fine to have an ad on your T Shirt if you want, but it is voluntary advertising from which the company benefits, not you. Members, and mostly their children, become unpaid employees of such networks, using the masses, which is great for the companies and their shareholders. Furthermore such networks are highly exposed to manipulation, and are often manipulated, the subject of separate Xecutives.net-interviews. What you actually see usually is not really what you wanted to see. It is rather the result of AI working behind the scenes. Most people don’t think about it and so they cannot tell their children about the hidden complexity, about the data drain, fake news, etc. And if children do not see the complexity, due to lack of education by their parents they can be easily manipulated too, for instance with toxic games, or by trolls and untrue facts. And what comes next? There will be more interviews about this topic too.
What is the network part of Xecutives.net?
Xecutives.net is not a network like social or electronic networks are. Xecutives.net is a network insofar as the platform allows bringing together interesting people with interesting projects and ideas. But Xecutives.net does not bring these things to the public. Such contacts and projects behind the scenes are often personal, sometimes initiated by Xecutives.net. Sometimes not even Xecutives.net is aware of contacts and projects between two or more interview partners, which is absolutely fine.