Richard Straub, February 3, 2017
We need growth more than ever – with billions of people around the globe in quest of social, economic, spiritual wellbeing and dignity. Even in the developed world we are facing persistent unemployment and underemployment that may be further exacerbated by the pervasive deployment of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.
However, with regard to the improvement of education systems in combination with communication, learning- and knowledge technologies we have more human potential than ever at our hands. It appears though that the human capacity-capability gap is widening and much of this latent human potential goes unused.
The conference will focus on the management challenges for private and public sector organizations and the civil society in the context of a fast-changing, complex and volatile environment. It will also keep in perspective a well-functioning and fair society where broad-based prosperity in all its dimensions must be the objective.
Key questions and challenges include:
- Unleashing innovation driven growth globally. Creating a “social ecology” of organizations & institutions (Drucker) that enables innovation, entrepreneurship and value creation.
- Developing policies to encourage and support fast growth for small and mid-sized companies.
- Establishing a new balance between short-term and long-term focus to support investment and entrepreneurial innovation in large organizations.
- Creating a culture of self-governance and societal responsibility to address externalities such as impact of company strategy and actions on the social fabric in a city, country or region.
- Embracing prosperity beyond the economic measurements towards its social, intellectual and spiritual dimensions.
- Moving ahead in the quest to overcome the industrial age rigid and bureaucratic management models and embed growth and innovation in company’s DNA. Determining a new equilibrium between global and local as well as centralized vs decentralized to support a sense of belonging, joint purpose and community building.
- Developing leadership skills and competencies that help to unleash human potential – be it for growth from exploitation of existing capabilities or development of new opportunities.