The Series – London ties today’s topics with tomorrow’s strategies

Experts and executives collaborate to tackle the top issues on everyone’s agenda

More than 900 participants attended the latest installment in The Premier Business Leadership Series, held in London, April 29-30. This invitation-only executive conference, sponsored by SAS, featured a dynamic mix of keynote speakers, panel discussions, networking opportunities and breakout presentations by industry experts.

For business professionals seeking insight into today’s top issues, conference attendee Jost Dörken, Vice President of Organizational Development at SAS, said the program’s diverse segments hit the mark: “Every topic in some way related to the key issues of today – the economy, with the credit crisis, and green topics – the two mega trends.”

Keynotes, panelists tackle today’s intense topics
The global economy. Corporate sustainability. Outperforming competitors. Climate change. Executives make decisions every day that involve these topics, so listening to and even participating in conversations with other like-minded people is of great value. Two panel discussions gave the audience an inside look at the global economy and some ideas on how to perform in a less than ideal economic environment.

The panel discussion An Outlook on the Global Economy featured chief economists from HSBC Bank and Standard Chartered, as well as the chief market strategist from Bank of America. These economic experts delivered views on the shift of economic power from the West to the East, the impact of the US slowdown on world financial markets, and the credit crunch and its fallout.

SAS CEO Jim Goodnight and Executive Vice President of SAS Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific Mikael Hagström were joined by the CEO of Telstra, Sol Trujillo, for the panel discussion Leading the High-Performance Organization. SAS Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Jim Davis moderated the discussion about how these executives develop a strategy and steer their businesses to optimum performance. According to Trujillo, analytics is of top importance in today’s “real-time world.” He said, “Now that we are more and more wireless, the question becomes can we become real-time with customers by taking advantage of analytics?” Hagström agreed, saying that “value-add is what is important for customers. Our business at SAS is linked to growing data volumes – the more data, the more business for SAS. It’s about going from automation to optimization.”

Out in front of the green agenda
Keynote speakers set the stage for the second day’s topics: sustainability and the possible responses businesses can take, new regulations and customer demands for greener business practices.

Recognized climate-change economics expert Lord Stern of Brentwood laid the foundation by articulating the scientific problem the world is facing and connecting it with the economic policies that follow. Green to Gold co-author Andrew Winston followed with practical reasons for executives to weigh in on the topic of sustainability, referring to factors like customer pressure, “eco-advantages” and attracting workforce talent.

Both Lord Stern and Andrew Winston sat on the panel discussion Corporate and Social Responsibility: From Regulation to Action, along with Clara Gaymard, National Executive for GE France, and Hagström. With his extensive experience in Europe and Asia, Hagström discussed what is driving green actions in different regions and markets, such as cost efficiencies in Asia, legislation in Europe and customer behavior in the United States. Gaymard discussed the many factors contributing to GE’s decision to move in a greener direction, including brand values, incremental economic gains and eco-awareness, pointing out the evidence put forth by Lord Stern in the Stern Report.

In keeping with the green agenda, SAS unveiled its leading offering, SAS^® for Sustainability Management. The new solution is the first decision-support software platform for proactively identifying innovative strategies that effectively address complex environmental, social and economic situations while achieving stakeholder objectives.

Asked about innovation within R&D on the panel, Leading the High Performance Organization, SAS CEO Jim Goodnight responds, “We try to focus our innovation on what customers want and need.”