I had the privilege of attending the by-invite-only Future Global 100 event in Hong Kong last week, involving not only senior executives from some of the biggest businesses in the world, but also by various government figures from as far as Africa. The event was only six hours long, so clearly an awful lot had to be said and done in a very limited timeframe!
Again, in a blog, this is no doubt way too short an assessment of what happened in Hong Kong, but it is no doubt useful as a tool to provide some levels of insight to those reading this. With so much going on in the world today, it was clearly going to be an interesting event, and wishing to encapsulate all that was said in no more than ten points, here is a summary of what I heard and experienced:
- The impact of the Eurozone crisis
Given that this large-scale event is out of business' control, what was interesting was hearing the position of a large Chinese company saying that they would *only* be able to grow by 50% next year given the impact of reduced western demand given not only the Eurozone crisis, but also the US crisis. One company within one country within the BRICs clearly experiencing the kind of growth expected given the extraordinary volumes available within these hungry markets
- Chinese and Japanese Exchange Rates
Another uncontrollable issue on the part of Japan, and controllable on the part of China (with opinion depending on which side of the fence you're sitting on) was the issue of their exchange rates. It was an interesting discussion, but without any immediate conclusions and actions from this forum.
It was surprising to me that the opportunities in emerging markets were mentioned only fleetingly, and more from a resources perspective than from a manufacturing perspective. I was actually pleased to find this though as I would hate to think that developed market growth depends only on emerging markets.
This is was identified albeit without exploring the issues associated with what would need to be done to achieve the required standards of the workforce of tomorrow - agile thinking, tenacity, flexibility, and an increasing ability to manage complexity. I cannot begin to imagine what kind of curricula will need to be put in place to nurture these kinds of skills for the future.
- Public Private Partnerships, Globalisation and Trade
Without doubt governments will play a huge role in enabling future growth, which will require governments to ensure that they themselves have the right skills on board to help tackle the challenges of the future with business. A senior representative of the WTO was there and I couldn't help thinking that in some cases, the level of thinking being done by the WTO was perhaps not able to be mirrored by many governments... Issues around increasing job protectionism in a shrinking economy were raised.
Raised, albeit all-too-briefly, as the 'two faces' of a country that needed some degree of intervention in order to achieve increasing harmony.
- Our Planet and Sustainability
As with the above point, it was raised, albeit all-too-briefly. One the one hand some governments were arguing the need to exceed carbon footprint guidelines in their drive to achieve similar levels of industrialisation to the developed countries 20 years ago. However, it's really difficult to justify spiting the entire planet in the rush to achieve industrialisation... The impact of global warming was raised, where if the global temperature was to be raised by one degree, that most of the top 15 cities in the world that would be wiped out by the rise in sea levels would be Asian, which holds huge implications for how Asian authorities view global warming...
This was an interesting point, as I started wondering to what extent good governance is a cultural issue, and whether there were indeed any absolutes in this discipline, and what exactly those would be. If the world is going to talk about governance as a global phenomenon, then there would need to be global standards such as ISO 31000 (applicable to risk management) in this discipline too!
Interestingly, innovation was hardly raised at all at this level, and I raised this fact while leading a round table (that it had not been mentioned) after almost 6 hours of discourse. On the one hand, it seemed as if R&D was almost implied at the levels of conversation being held, and on the other hand, a senior industry representative mentioned that it was key to have R&D levels at the top of the industry the company was competing in. Implied also was the required levels of return from that R&D.
As one realising the global potential of the variety of social media platforms out there, I was surprised to find how few of the worlds top leaders had personally embraced social media! While many of the global leaders were older than I am, I found a distinct misunderstanding of what social media was about. Many countries are all-too-aware of the power it gives customers and citizens though, for which reasons elements of social media have been banned in many countries.
In closing, there's some very big topics on everyone's minds, interestingly few of which can be resolved without the help and integration from others. Finally, I am quite surprised that 'the customer' was never discussed once in a business context... It seems it's still very much a product-centric world out there!
Thank you for taking the time to give us feedback on this event Guy. As with any strategic session and/or discussion, especially on this level, not all issues can be unpacked, discussed and given the attention that it is required. It is for the attendees to go back to their various countries/companies etc. and to implement what they see as the most pressing issues related to them in terms of their individual visions/objectives. I do believe that South Africa is on the right track with what Mr Trevor Manuel in his ministerial capacity in the Presidency of the National Planning Commission is doing. However, the implementation strategy and obtaining/ensuring buy-in from SA businesses are just as important as defining and structuring the vision. I must also add that I am very impressed with bloggers like yourself and for example Deloitte's digital strategy in terms of sharing information and provoking thoughts on strategic level by using digital platforms such as social and other media to get information out and very importantly, being talked about. At the end of the day, one of the very important elements in ensuring the implementation of economic sustainability and growth strategies, is to communicate, talk, create understanding, broadening perspectives, educating, etc. etc.
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