Is Silicon Valley losing its power?

Tuesday, June 22,2022 – 14:25. We are in the middle of an extreme heat wave in Stanford, California. I am enjoying my third day of the six weeks Stanford GSB Executive Education SEP program. Everything runs smoothly like clockwork and we are in the midst of an intriguing lecture about creativity techniques for innovation from Jonathan Levav . SUDDENLY ALL POWER GOES OFF. The air conditioning disappears as do the lecturer’s slides.

Tuesday, June 22, 2022 – 23:46 I am surprised that the power is still off and listen to reports about a wild fire that damaged the grid substantially. The campus and my residence are now completely in the dark and I keep bumping into objects as I am preserving the precious last bit of battery life of my smartphone to hunt for one of the few places with a surviving wifi connection. I am wondering whether I am really at the epicenter of the startup and high tech world. Can it be that Silicon Valley is finally losing its power?

Wednesday, June 23, 2022 – 22:12 The power is still gone – now we are at 32 hours without electricity. But this place has shown its resilience. I have seen world class faculty adapt and teach in the outdoors without any slides - Anne Beyer , Dan Klein , William Barnett , Jonathan Levav and Matt Abrahams . Our great program staff ( Angela Fogarty Thomas and team) did an outstanding job to re-arrange the program and the locations on the flow. They even build an in-promptu charging station. There is still no news when the power will be restored, but we just learned that buses will drive us to an air- conditioned conference center tomorrow for our lectures. This place has shown quite some resilience against adverse circumstances. The power of Silicon Valley appears to rest with its people and not with its electricity grid!