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What is your outlook for the global economy in 2011?
I think it's really a mixed picture. Developed economies are experiencing
sluggish growth although the business climate has much improved over the
circumstances that we had over the last few years.
The emerging markets, especially countries like India, China, and Brazil, are doing
extremely well and we expect that to continue.
The MENA region, in particular, is very strong as well with the rebound in prices
of oil and other natural commodities. We are continuing to see strength in the
MENA region. The world in 2011 is exceedingly complex,
interconnected, and unpredictable.
How can organizations develop resilience in this new world of risk?
I think as we look towards the new paradigm increasingly emerging markets are
becoming one of the best ways to mitigate your risk as a business going forward
and there's no better way to produce risks than entering into high growth markets
where the opportunity for generating better than average profits really exist.
So I would say, going forward, the number one way to cut your risk at doing business
is by diversifying business using emerging markets as a platform.
Our company is really investing heavily in emerging markets and we feel that's
going to be a cornerstone in our strategy for growth.
As global growth shifts to the developing world what should be the role of business
in developing countries?
I think it's very important for business to take a long term view with respect to
the emerging markets.
As we look forward to the emerging markets it's very important that we try to
leap frog some of the sort of technologies and approaches that were first adopted in
developed economies and try to start off the bat with the best possible approach to
doing business and I think our role as business leaders is to make sure that
we're starting off in the emerging markets with a very modern slate, a very clean
slate and basically bringing the latest technology and the latest solutions to
bear from day one so that we don't have to go through the learning curve that we add
to in some of the other developed economies
What would you consider the most important norms that an increasingly interdependent
yet diverse world needs to share?
I think, first and foremost, the view of stakeholders and their increasing
importance to your business is really something that has changed over the last
few years and as you plan the future and as you look to how you want to grow your
business, how you want to improve it, I think you need to take a more inclusive
look as to the entire body of stakeholders that are important to your business
and those that are important to your constituents.
So going forward, I think it's a much broader view of what's important to
business and I think that's one of the ways that things have changed over the
last several years.
How can companies turn sustainability into a competitive advantage?
Hard core business is helping companies re-engineer their supply chains.
In the past we've focused on delivering efficiencies around cost,
efficiencies around time, value propositions around industry.
I think the new paradigm would be re-engineering value changes around
sustainable concepts and stakeholder inclusion.
I think if we approach the supply chains in that way and start from scratch
and pick an inclusive approach to these new processes, I think we would be in
a position to really create sustainable advantage for the years to come.