Bled (Slovenia), June 11/NOA - European Leadership Centre (ELC), seated at the IEDC-Bled School of Management, successfully concluded the seventh conference entitled "Leading in Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities for Europe".
In the conference, 75 representatives from business world, governments, non-governmental organizations, media, deans and directors of management schools, and experts on the leadership issues from eighteen countries discussed about political, economic and cultural responses to the crisis and formulated recommendations for recovery and beyond.
The introductory day of the conference was marked mainly by a discussion about the responses of political, economic and cultural worlds to the global crisis. Prof. Jean-Pierre Lehmann, professor at IMD Lausanne and founding director of Evian Group, stressed that Europe has lost its leading position and is no longer the center of universe; moreover, it is in decline in geographical, economic as well as demographic sense.
In his opinion, it should become more externally open and internally unified, speak with one voice and see what it can contribute to the world. Žiga Turk, Secretary General, Reflection Group on the Future of EU, is convinced that the crisis has begun as an institutional crisis, continued as climate, financial and economic crisis, with the possibility of a spillover to political crisis.
Europe should be more concerned about the key issues, such as demographic trends, the rising importance of BRIC countries, abundance in terms of information, infrastructure and money and climate change, where short-term politics should not work against long-term trends. Prof. Vladimir Gligorov from the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, Austria, said that Europe has not reached a consensus on some key questions, while it is also rather unsuccessful at managing some types of diversity; he sees mid-term economic stagnation and declining share of public expenditure as two major risk factors.
Prof. Aleš Debeljak, Director of Center for Cultural and Religious Studies, Slovenia, stressed that the European civilization should be seen as a pool of ideas and technologies that we can share with the rest of the world; he set out Japan as an excellent example of cross-fertilization of the modern Western cultural tradition and local traditional culture, resulting in creativity and numerous innovations.
Mr. Sergio Razeto, President, Wärtsilä Italy, pointed out that we should strive for a fair global field and restore the confidence in business world. Further on, the leaders focused on the business perspective of responses to the crisis. Prof. Pierre Casse, Leadership Chair at the IEDC and professor at Moscow School of Management, and Dr. Melita Rant from the IEDC presented the outcomes of the leadership research on the CEE Europe CEOs' responses to the crisis and compared them with the responses of CEOs from the rest of Europe.
In general, the European leaders see the crisis more as a threat than as an opportunity, while the CEE business leaders are more optimistic and see more opportunities; at the same time, they devote more attention to strategic issues, not mainly to operational ones, as it is the case with their peers from the rest of Europe. In the frame of a panel on financial challenges, Milan M. Cvikl, Secretary General of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, stressed some basic values have been lost in the world and that we need to take steps to rebuild trust in financial institutions, while Mr. Marko VoljÄ, CEO, K&H Bank, Hungary, looked at the time after crisis, and foresaw a considerably lower growth rate, liquidity and ROE and much stronger risk awareness.
Dr. Alessandro Calligaris, President of Calligaris Group, and Mr. Alessandro Vescovini, President of S.B.E., Vescovini Group, both from Italy, looked at the challenges and opportunities from the industrial point of view and stressed the importance of developing a long-term strategy, of a balanced financial structure and of the ability to adjust rapid changes. The final part of the conference was devoted to formulating recommendations for recovery from the crisis and beyond. Dr. Erhard Busek, President of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, Austria, stressed that Europe should define some general rules in terms of business environment and competition and have a stronger focus on education and R&D.
On a national level, all European countries are important, however, we should define also responsibilities on the European level, especially in the fields of energy, finance, climate and taxation.
Dr. Riccardo Illy, President of Illy Group, Italy, pointed out that we should take the opportunity of the current crisis in order to make structural changes in micro- and macro-economic system, while the business theory of companies' and products' life-cycle should be applied also on country and continent level.
He sees diversity of languages, cultures and religions as the major European advantage and a large potential for an increased level of creativity.
Prof. Ivan Svetlik, Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, Republic of Slovenia, presented some measures taken by the Ministry in order to help individuals and companies to overcome the crisis and to prepare them for the time after it; he underlined that the companies cannot expect to sell the same products to the same markets as before the crisis. The participants of the conference, chaired by Prof. Jean-Pierre Lehmann, agreed that we live in a totally new environment, marked by new players and new technologies, and that it would be too early to assess the implications of the crisis if it ended very soon.
We need to remain optimistic and at the same time realistic, in order to avoid wishful thinking; we need to rebuild trust and follow the rules of ethics.
The time of crisis is the time to invest in the future, and we need to be alert not to invest in yesterday's concepts, knowledge, technologies…
The West is currently in decline; however, it still has a tremendous impact on the global future. The seventh ELC conference means a continuation of leaders' cooperation, European leadership assessment and promotion, arising from the mission and vision of ELC and being implemented since its establishment in 2002.
The ELC, under the chairmanship of Prof. Danica Purg, will as a centre of excellence also in the future organize annual conferences, in which the European business-political, and NGO leaders will have a chance to exchange their opinions about European and global questions, bring up new ideas and initiatives for projects and programs for accelerating European leadership competences. The program content was, besides IEDC-Bled School of Management, contributed also by Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter and The Leadership Trust, both from United Kingdom, and Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe, Austria.
