INSEAD/ EABIS conference... economic opportunity moves east and south... the war for talent... but where is the commercial analysis?
I spent Friday 28th October at the Paris INSEAD campus, participating in the EABIS’s 10th Annual Colloquium focused on the role of business in developing countries.
One of the key themes of the day was the movement of business opportunity to developing countries:
- Michael Cannon-Brookes, a senior executive from IBM, reflected that there were “tectonic shifts in the global economy, that few in the ‘west’ fully appreciated. A comment I couldn’t agree more with.
- Doug Baillie, Chief Human Resources Officer at Unilever, spoke of the global economic centre of gravity moving east and south.
- In my own presentation, I noted the entrepreneurial energy that I had seen in the previous four weeks in Zambia and Bangladesh. And highlighted projections that in the coming five years 7 of the top 10 fastest growing economies will be from Africa.
Another key theme of the conference was that of the need to develop Human Capital for Inclusive Business:
- Doug Baillie noted that the war for (quality, local) talent in developing markets is one of Unilever’s biggest priorities.
- I was pleased later in the day, when Walter Baets (Director, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town) highlighted working with business school faculties across Africa as an important priority.
Any critiques of the day?
Possibly yes. My sense is that the research community is still struggling to provide sufficiently hard-nosed commercial analysis of Inclusive Business models. Whilst there was lots of talk of partnerships, development impact, human capital, there was very little analysis of profitability, costs, financial projections, and break-even points.
But overall, a very worthwhile day en route back to London after our BIF team week in Dhaka.