Bled (15 November 2017): More than 100 leaders from 17 countries attended IEDC’s International Annual Presidents’ Forum with Prof. Joe Santos, a well-known specialist that has been centering his research and teaching on the general management of multinationals, with a particular focus on global integration and global innovation.
The Presidents Forum was titled “Globalisation is dead. Long live Globalisation! — and what this means for business leaders”
The Forum was opened by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr. Miro Cerar. In his opening speech he outlined: »Slovenia is not a big country, nor should we say that it is small. In many ways we could say that its size is just right – and that is our strategic advantage. Given our geo-strategic position, businesses have exploited this advantage: some innovative and visionary Slovenian companies have succeeded by targeting certain niche markets and are a living proof that obstacles can be turned into opportunities.«
He also complemented Prof. Danica Purg, the President and the Dean of the IEDC-Bled School of Management as being one of the greatest promoters of Slovenia.
In his keynote speech, Prof. Joe Santos noted that we are facing a new trend in understanding the market. "Today, the world is the place for creativity, not just the place for production and trade. The creativity is the reason that we see the world differently. In today's world, we need good managers and not economy. It’s the managers that allow the local integration. Some companies take the world as their market, but still keep the local specialties. Among them are such companies as Netflix. In the 80s that was CNN, for instance. Today Alibaba is establishing a world fair in the global village. In 2017, in China alone, in less than 24 hours they’ve sold more than 25 billion USD worth of goods.”
His lecture was followed by the roundtable with business leaders sharing their best practices:
- Mr. Alessandro Bolzan, Chief Business Analyst, Hikvision Europe, Italy
- Mr. Alessandro Calligaris, President, Calligaris s.p.a., Italy
- Mr. Sandi Češko, CEO and co-founder, Studio Moderna, Slovenia
- Dr. Mark Pleško, CEO and co-founder, Cosylab, Slovenia
- Mr. Pavel Popov, COO and CFO, United Rocket Space Corporation, Russia
Participants of the forum concluded that the importance of local businesses is growing despite globalization, but it is important to have a vision and good managers that need to make employees and business partners feel good and give the feeling that they work for the local environment.