CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
£10K TO £25K
"Brilliant, amusing and very interesting - he made economics fascinating and relevant to everybody"
Mail on Sunday
TOPICS
Economic Overview, Emerging Markets (BRIC), Risk, Bus. Competitiveness
SPEECH TITLES
The new rules of competitiveness
The effects of external forces on business strategy & skills
BIOGRAPHY
Acknowledged as a leading authority on competitiveness, Stéphane Garelli is Professor at the International Institute for Management Development and the University of Lausanne. He is also Director of the World Competitiveness Centre.
Garelli focuses on how companies and countries compete in international markets. Given that globalisation makes us much more vulnerable to external forces, he analyses the economic environment and measures the prospects - taking infrastructure, education, technology and demographics into account.
He demonstrates how, as emerging markets turn into emerging powers, market share is becoming increasingly important. Companies must accept a higher degree of risk in their operations and adopt a more aggressive mindset.
Professor Garelli is chairman of Swiss newspaper Le Temps. Prior to that he was Chairman of Sandoz Banking Holdings and a board member of Banque Edouard Constant. He served as senior advisor to Hewlett-Packard Europe, and before that Managing Director of the World Economic Forum and The Davos Symposium.
Stéphane Garelli is a member of the China Enterprise Management Association and the Royal Society. He has also been elected to the Constitutional Assembly of his local state in Switzerland.
Garelli's presentations are always forceful, accessible and above all thought provoking.
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Q&A
JLA: Do you see more global volatility in 2011?
SG: Yes. After the financial, economic and social crises, we're now dealing with a monetary crisis. Uncertainty about the dollar and euro will be exacerbated by huge ($6,200bn) liquidity in emerging economies, who will probably diversify into other financial assets. Meanwhile China will continue to oppose a Yuan rise, but may be persuaded to accept it due its own nascent inflation.
JLA: Will the BRICs continue to provide the engine of growth?
SG: Yes, but not necessarily to the benefit of Europe and the US. The big revolution in modern economics ('Globalisation 2.0'?) is the emergence of a southern block - below a line going from Mexico to Moscow - which is increasingly self sufficient in raw materials, markets, finance and even technology. This year, more than 60% of Chinese exports will go to other emerging nations.
JLA: Do you see any changes in Eurozone membership?
SG: No, there's very little possibility of a member defaulting or leaving the eurozone - though debts may be rescheduled. (California is bankrupt, but will it leave the dollar zone?) However, more permanent mechanisms will be created to bail-out countries or review their economic and budgetary policy assumptions. The key issue is, who will succeed Trichet at the ECB - a German or an Italian?
JLA: What are the relative strengths of the UK and German economies?
SG: Germany is more diversified and export-oriented than Britain. They can also rely on a very competitive layer of medium sized companies (often family owned), which are thriving on international markets.
JLA: Are the right measures in place to rebalance the UK economy?
SG: I strongly believe there's no competitiveness today for a country without home-grown technology and enterprises. I think we're going to see re-industrialisation, or at least new controls on industrial activities. As a result many companies will re-assess their outsourcing and overstretched global manufacturing capabilities.
January 2011