India’s National Competitiveness Forum attended by more than hundred CXO’s and other global leaders
Deborah L. Wince-Smith, President and CEO, US Council on Competitiveness participated in the forum
Monday, September 29, 2014 1:18PM IST (7:48AM GMT)
- Deliberations were made around the agenda of Competitiveness at the India’s National Competitiveness Forum
- India’s National Competitiveness Forum (NCF) was organized by India Council on Competitiveness (a joint initiative with US Council on Competitiveness and Institute for Competitiveness, India)
- The National Competitiveness Forum was attended by CXO’s, industry leaders, social influencers, thinkers, academicians and senior executives from corporates
- It is a common platform to discuss the solutions to the pressing and emerging issues India faces at this juncture
India’s National Competitiveness Forum, the flagship event of India Council on Competitiveness held on September 26, 2014 at Radisson Blu Plaza in New Delhi was a huge success. The day started with an opening address and keynotes. Followed by thought provoking panel discussions and other deliberations by influential leaders.
Wilfried Aulbur, Chairman, India Council on Competitiveness & Managing Partner & CEO, Roland Berger gave the opening address by saying, “We have gathered here to have a dialogue on what will drive India forward and to discuss competitiveness and innovation and how we can make it better. We want this dialogue to eventually reflect in policy, guidelines, industry competitiveness benchmarking and our ability to judge our peers in India and at the global level. This forum facilitates coming together of industry to discuss how to better the competitiveness of the nation and I welcome you all on board.
Followed by a keynote by Honorable Deborah L. Wince-Smith, President and CEO, US Council on Competitiveness. She said, “New prime minister has a vision to transform India into a manufacturing future and move out of the commoditized manufacturing of 20th century and look ahead. Any issue you want to look at in the functioning of the Indian Council of Competitiveness can to be looked at from the perspective of Talent, Technology, Investment and Infrastructure. They can be looked at as interconnected systems that one needs to modulate and grow depending on what your needs are.”
The first session of the forum “Economic Geography and Competitiveness” emphasized on the importance of regional competitiveness and the requisite to build well-connected and planned infrastructure so as to control the widening demand-supply gap. Thus managing the inevitable urbanization and to take the country in the direction of competitiveness.
Subsequently, Mark Goyder, Founder Director, Tomorrow’s Company while delivering his keynote stated, “Sanskar’ I understand is a Hindu concept which talks about a process which transforms a person in an outstanding and ideal personality by eradicating the negative mental tendencies within him by inculcating human values and qualities which make him more dynamic, discreet, duty conscious and responsible towards himself as well as family and society. Entrepreneurial India today needs Sanskar.”
The session on the theme of “Technology and Competitiveness” focused on the idea of technology adoption and its ability to foster inclusion, innovation and competitiveness. Panelists discussed about the ways in which technology can change the ways of doing business and can give them an edge in comparison to their peers.
Focusing on the importance of sustainable Business Models, Maarten Koomans, Chief Global Healthcare & Global Clients, BusinesModelsInc pointed out that the rules of business that have changed over the years, through newer technology, newer distribution channels and newer products. He talked about a mantra to compete in the market by suggesting that firms should not focus on the product, but on the business models, by identifying the customer segments they wanted to serve, and then acquire and retain the customers.
Roberto Alvarez and Chad Evans addressed the attendees in the session “Competitiveness Decoder” and demonstrated the first of-its-kind, data based tool developed in order to, analyse and visualize the key drivers of a nation’s competitiveness. They said, “We been on a journey together on what competitiveness means, what drives competitiveness and can we visualize that and with that visualization can we learn lessons.”
Discourses were also made on themes like Enabling Industrial development and Realigning Institutions. They advocated the need of turning India into a manufacturing hub and even applauded the ‘Make in India’ campaign recently launched by the Honorable Prime Minister. Points were raised on the poor ranking of India on the ease of doing business and the role of governing institutions that bring about a change in the economic, societal and political arena of the country.
Influential leaders such as Pirojshaw Sarkari (CEO, Mahindra Logistics), Kevin Stolarick (Director, India Institute for Competitiveness, Toronto), Girish Nayak (CTO, ICICI Lombard), Gerd Hoefner (MD, Siemens), Nagendra Palle (CEO, Mahindra First Choice Wheels), Angara Venkara Girjia Kumar (CEO, National Insurance Company Limited), Anita Arjundas (CEO, Real Estate Sector and Managing Director, Mahindra Lifespace Developers) and Anuj Mehra (CEO, Mahindra Rural Housing Finance) et al were some of the other panelists.
In the end, Dr. Amit Kapoor, President and CEO, India Council on Competiveness profusely thanked the key officials of US Council on Competitiveness and all thought leaders who made the India’s National Competitiveness Forum deliberations successful. He said, “ We look forward at gathering the industry leaders every year to make India more competitive in the long run.”
About India Council on Competitiveness
Institute for Competitiveness (India) the Indian knot in the global network of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School has initiated the India Council on Competitiveness. The Council, created in collaboration with the U.S. Council on Competitiveness; is based in Gurgaon, India and is an association of distinguished members from industry, academia, think tanks, media and researchers. The mission of the India Council is to set an action agenda to drive Indian competitiveness, productivity and leadership in world markets to raise the standard of living for all Indians. . For more information, visit www.compete.org.in
Media Contact Details
Neera Vohra
Institute for Competitiveness
+91-9810473213 or neera.vohra@competitiveness.in
