Editor's Blog

King Khalid Responsible Competitiveness Award Announced

Editor — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:20:00 GMT

Presented by the King Khalid Foundation this annual award will be offered to the top three performers (companies) as per the Saudi Arabia Responsible Competitiveness Initiative (SARCI) assessment and ranking.

It is offered to the best three performing companies based on the benchmarks set by the SARCI. The companies are those which adopt efficient programs meant to support sustainable social, economic and environmental development.

During yesterday's session at the GCF, the King Khalid Award winners were announced:

1st Place: NCB for its high overall performance in 7 thematic areas of teh index, particularly in the Public Communication area, specifically in the Sustainability Report.

2nd Place: Al Zamil for its high overall ranking particularly in the Product and Service Innovation area through efficient resource production.

3rd Place: Al Fanar Group, for its high overall performance and particularly in the Responsible Supply Chain area, specifically through its Supplier Development Program.

Next session: Shinzo Abe, 90th Prime Minister of Japan

Editor — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 07:18:00 GMT

Come to what promises to be an interesting session!

Talent: The DNA of 21st Century Leader

Editor — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:50:00 GMT

Here are some brief references to topics touched on by the speakers in this session: Dr. Lalit Johri, Fellow in International Business, Director, Oxford Advanced Management and Leadership Programme, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford - Today's leaders need to have a holistic leadership approach that includes issues such as ethics, the environments and others. At Oxford, an evolving Competence Framework with a view to creating 5 thousand leaders in 5 years in Saudi Arabia. - Leadership is a journey that needs to be constantly pursued. Mohammed H. Al-Mady, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) - It is essential to give human resources the importance they truly have. We should have companies not only undertake annual financial audits but also human resource audits. John Drzik, CEO, Oliver Wyman - Leaders need to be developed on 2 dimensions: Content Leadership: help leaders make better decisions. Context Leadership: help leaders develop the skills to motivate their organizations. - Most firms put lot's of effort in content leadership and not enough on context leadership. Content leadership can be developed in classroom training but context leadership requires on-the-job training through mentoring programs, shifting staff around different departments, among other techniques. - Content leadership is more universal in nature whilst context leadership needs to be tailored to country, culture, organization. Dr. Hans-Paul Buerkner, President and CEO, BCG - Each person has the responsibility to develop ourselves and the people around us, including our children, our employees, ourselves. It is not just the companies, governments, etc. - In reality, all companies are about people. We should have a P&L on people management and a "People Flow" like a cash flow but for people. - Important to give people the chance to work in different parts of the world and with different cultures as well as in different parts of an organization. - A leader is only succesful beause of his leadership of his team and its not just a charisma issue. - It's not sufficient to be right but also to be able to have the capacity to communicate it effectively. - You don't outsource management or leadership.

Prof. Michael Porter

Editor — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:43:00 GMT

An excellent presentation by Prof. Michael Porter with the presentation and video to be soon uploaded to the GCF Community. Now under way, the session on Talent: The DNA of 21st Century Leader.

Global Risks 2009

Editor — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:17:00 GMT

Here are some of the risks identified and issues addressed by the speakers in this very interesting session:

- the speed at which the governments have developed the recovery plans.
- protectionism
- creditworthiness of the borrower of last resort (e.g. Iceland)
- resolution of intergenerational multilaral issues: carbon, large population going up for retirement, increase in unemployment and skills imbalance resulting in social unrest.
- speed with which banks return to becoming banks.
- good companies are taking too long to act.
- Afghanistan and Pakistan will become a major source of political crisis that will make dealing with other crises much more difficult.
- There is a set of interacting crises that creates a large systemic crisis. Financial crisis will not end soon.
- A series of peaks and troughs in the fuel and food prices over the next 2 to 5 years.
- Increase in cybercrime and disruption of the Internet which will have a large impact on financial and communication networks.
- Environmental problems from ecosystem destruction.
- With these crises converging, it is difficult to deal with them effectively resulting in a system crisis.
- There has also been a failure of risk management.
- Will the fiscal policy plans be enough?
- Social unrest, loss of rule of law in certain countries.
- Liquidity risk
- Business will need to become accustomed to the involvement of governments at unprecedented levels.
- We need risk intelligent enterprises. Risk management needs to become a key business process. We should not turn risk management into risk avoidance
- We need to fully appreciate the psychology of economics. Hope is very important and the Obama factor could help solve the current problems.
- The USA economy will continue to be a problem as it continues to borrow its way out of the financial crisis. The problem has been the economic boom that preceded this bust.
- The USA lived in a phony bubble by borrowing from other countries and imported goods from other countries.
- The free market is getting blamed for problems that were being created by government through not allowing the free market forces to act.

Infrastructure: Building Our Way Out starting now

Editor — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:50:00 GMT

This session will focus on the following questions:

• What role does infrastructure spending have in economic
stimulus?
• How should infrastructure projects be prioritized in times of
scarce capital availability?
• Are there new ways to deploy infrastructure to serve the poor
without compromising productivity and profits?
• How does infrastructure drive competitiveness at different
stages of countries’ development?
• How critical is infrastructure for the development of talent in
knowledge-based economies?

The speakers are:

Dr. Wilhelm Bender (Chairman of the Executive Board, Fraport AG)
Mark Fuller (Chairman, Monitor Group)
Timothy Flynn (Chairman, KPMG International)
Wolfgang Lehmacher (Member of the Board, GeoPost S.A.; Paris Group CEO, Pasona Group Inc.)

Day 2 starts - Moderated by Laura Tyson - Prof. Haas School of Business, U. of California, Berkeley

Editor — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:41:00 GMT

Day 2 has just started and the 20th Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chretien es about to take the podium.

Now speaking - Mary Robinson, 7th President of Ireland

Editor — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:11:00 GMT

Mary Robinson is the first woman president of Ireland, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and currently serves as the President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative.

She is speaking about the issue of human rights, which, she explains, has not received the recognition globally that it should have. Although human rights have been integrated into legislation, constitutions, etc. human rights are still deemed an obstacle in the advancement of dialogue. She is explaining that we are at a critical juncture of a financial crisis, a food crisis, a human rights crisis, an environmental crisis all interplaying together that requires us to act urgently. Having a human rights focus, would help substantially in dealing with these crises, through the improvement of conditions for individuals, for organizations, and for countries. It will not be a race to the bottom but a gradual progression towards the top.

Participants from 33 countries present at the GCF

Editor — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:58:00 GMT

I just got some numbers on the countries of origin of the high-level crowd here at the GCF and so far, they come from 33 different countries, and counting.

What's the use of the Arts?

Editor — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:47:00 GMT

Here are a few brief points presented by the speakers:

Saeb Eigner:

The current honorary president of Singapore stated some time ago that Singapore got just about everything right except for culture.

Mr. Eigner makes a presentation on the impact important buildings have made in the cultural life of a city, including Los Angeles, Bilbao, London, Qatar, Abu Dhabi.

Showed many examples of Middle Eastern art based on calligraphy that is now being recognised worldwide as top-level art. It is an essential part of the development of the region for art to be promoted.

James Barrett:

Are we measuring what really matters to assess the well-being of a nation? GDP? We’ve found that the after US$10K the increase in quality of life starts to fall apart. Take as an excample the fact that GDP income values prison construction in the same manner as museum construction.

Jim Clifton:

What does everybody in the world want? A good job.
There’s more money in hope, than there is in water and oil.
The value of hope was shown by the imposing development of the US in the last 30 years.

Michael Kaiser

Creativity is essential for the development of the economy. The cities with most culture are the cities that are most productive. The cities with most culture are the cities with the most tourism.

Just finished thinking about Food, now let's think about Art and the Crisis!

Editor — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:15:00 GMT

The highly engaging "Thought for Food" session has just finished with many participants having face to face exchanges with the Speakers after it was closed. Now a coffee break before the next session entitled "Painting Crisis in a New Light" which will address the following topics:

• How do the arts enhance the competitiveness of a nation?
• Why are the arts important to a thriving society?
• Is prosperity defined by economic measures alone? What can
the arts teach us about true prosperity?
• How can nations build skills in arts and creativity?
• How is it possible to become creative, productive, and
prosperous?

There is an impressive line-up of speakers here as well:

James Barrett (Executive Director, Redefining Progress)
Jim Clifton (Chairman and CEO, The Gallup Organization)
Saeb Eigner (Chairman, Lonworld)
Michael Kaiser(President, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts)

Get involved!

Highly engaging Q&A with the Speakers on "Thought for Food" Session

Editor — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:47:00 GMT

The GCF participants are truly taking advantage of the high level panel they have before them by posing extremely pertinent questions on the food crisis before us. A high-level debate with strong positions for different opposing views such as organic vs non-organic.

Digital Map of Fertility in African Soil to boost Food Production

Editor — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:36:00 GMT

Relevant to the discussion currently occuring at the GCF is the following news of 16th January:

"New digital map of Africa's depleted soils to offer insights critical for boosting food production"

http://www.physorg.com/news151055461.html

Belief in Organic Agriculture as a Solution?

Editor — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:32:00 GMT

Ms Wade-Marchant expressed that she was not fearful of what Messrs. Enger and Brabeck had stated as she believes that organic food production will allow to overcome the food crisis.

What do you think? Should we be scared or should we be focusing on shifting towards organic food production?

Financial Crisis - Low Fertilizer Demand + Low Food Production = Food Crisis?

Editor — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:30:00 GMT

Mr. Thorlief Enger expressed that one good thing about the food crisis is that it raised awareness about the importance of agriculture, which had been taken for granted over the last 25 years. The potential to increase production in Africa is very important because they use 1/10 of the fertilizer being used in places like Asia.

The financial crisis has had a very important impact on the agricultural sector as we saw that at the end of 2008 the demand for fertilizer consumption went down drastically. This means, food production will go down and therfore, prices should go up as a result. We are probably at the beginning of a food crisis as a result of the financial crisis.