I read in New Scientist that
…even a fleeting exposure to a smiling face makes people more likely to make risky (investment) decisions.
Today’s invention couples this with the view of Edwin Land (inventor of eg the Polaroid Camera) that he only ever had accountants on the board to quantify risks, not to decide about taking them.
It takes the form of modified boardroom portrait photographs. These would actually be digital images -each set in its own frame and with a number of different versions stored: from scowling to beaming.
A non-executive director would sense the mood of each board meeting and, if he or she deemed it unnecessarily risk-averse, the portraits would be surreptitiously modified to show slightly more smiling faces -and thus improve the willingness to take a punt.
(Although the possibility of competitive interference with these pictures exists, actually, I’d like to see the images controlled directly by the shareholders).
