Source of Stellar Speakers
Stéphane Garelli is a Professor at both the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), one of the world’s leading business schools, and at the University of Lausanne. He is also the director of IMD’s World Competitiveness Center and is an authority on World Competitiveness: his research focuses particularly on how nations and enterprises compete on International markets.
He publishes the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook – the most comprehensive and reputed study in the field of the competitiveness of nations. This yearly report compares the competitiveness of forty-six nations using more than 300 criteria.
Stéphane is widely considered to be one of the top lecturers on economic and business matters. He has a unique ability to analyze and describe the world economic environment as it evolves, and to draw conclusions about what changes in the world economy actually mean for companies and individuals alike.
Professor Garelli is closely connected to the world of business. He is, among others, Chairman of the Board of Directors of “Le Temps”, the leading French language Swiss newspaper. He was formerly Chairman of the Board of the Sandoz Financial and Banking Holding, and member of the board of the Banque Edouard Constant. The author of numerous publications in the field of competitiveness, international trade and investments, he is also a columnist in several magazines. For twelve years he was permanent senior adviser to the European management of Hewlett-Packard, and before that Managing Director of the World Economic Forum and of the Davos Symposium for many years. He is a member of a number of institutes, such as: China Enterprise Management Association, Board of the ‘Fondation Jean Monet pour l’Europe’, The Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Mexican Council for Competitiveness, etc.
He was a member of the Constitutional Assembly of his local state – Vaud, Switzerland from 1999 to 2002.
“WORLD CLASS COMPETITIVENESS.”
An outlook for 2020, and beyond
The Economy: What is good news, or bad news? Uncertainty and nervousness will prevail. Stress points: Climate change, energy, low interest rates, currency volatility, political tensions. Protectionism: From job protection to national security rhetoric. Market access jeopardized? Globalization: The global value chain is still thriving. Regionalization will be prioritized. Technology revolution: Automation, connectivity, location, sharing (C to C), plus convergence and mobility. What impact on energy? The New Business models: Free (Facebook), Subscription (Spotify), Licensing (Microsoft), Streaming (Netflix). Does profit still matter? The Immaterial Economy: How can it be measured? Can business and personal data be protected? How much regulation is needed? Who is liable? Technology companies: How dominant? Branching into other sectors: cloud, food retailing, health, watches, finance. Is the consumer trapped? The Key Issues: Who will be the competitors of tomorrow? Where will they come from? Technology lowers entry barriers. The Black Hole Economy: Start-ups are bought out by dominant technology firms. Can they still grow into large companies? The Next Systemic Risk: From the regulated banking sector or from the unregulated technology sector? Should tech firms be dismantled? Corporate Ownership: New actors (sovereign funds, emerging companies, family business), new global brands, M&A and share buybacks. The Tax Impact: Territorial approach, transparency, equality of treatment. No tax rate harmonization. Are we shifting toward a global system? The Millennials: Me-ism, strong sense of entitlement, idealistic, free is cool. Overwhelming influence on governments and companies. Mindset: Resilience, speed, openness to new ideas and business models, sensitive to new value systems, responsive to society expectations. Latest books: “Are you a Tiger, a Cat or a Dinosaur?”, “Top Class Competitiveness”. Stephane Garelli, 2020