Cyber resiliency at the World Economic Forum

Launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos last year, we are asking CEOs and governments to sign a simple set of cyber principles, thereby personally committing to taking cyber risk as a top priority. The Principles are straightforward but powerful, asking leaders to recognize their interdependence, to acknowledge the importance of their leadership on this issue, the need to incorporate cyber risk management into their operations, and perhaps most importantly, the shared responsibility, and so to ask their partners, customers and suppliers to do the same.

This year we are bringing leaders from many different industries and nations together to build on our initial success. We’ve created a powerful community, one that can really move the needle to improve our global cyber resilience. I’ll ask this community during our meeting in Davos to collectively determine what success looks like, which issues need to be dealt with first, and what they will commit to.

When men and mountains meet

The poet William Blake wrote that “Great things are done when men and mountains meet.”¹ Despite this poem being more than 200 years old, and recognizing the dynamic collection of men and women leading business and society today, this line perfectly sums up my feelings of anticipation ahead of my return to the mountain in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, to participate in the 2013 World Economic Forum.

This will be my sixth year attending the forum whose theme this year is “Resilient Dynamism.” Each year I’m impressed by the quality and insightfulness of the event, and by the intelligence and passion of those who take part. Where else do you get the opportunity to interact with smart young innovators, top academics, government leaders, and senior executives … all in one place?

From strategy to execution - Helping clients solve their most critical challenges

In virtually every conversation we have with our clients, we hear about the same core challenge: Organizations are facing near-constant change, and the time they have to react and make decisions is getting shorter.

Whether the challenge is rooted in the global economy, new regulations, emerging technology or something else, companies must gather as much information as possible, conduct vigorous analysis, and decide whether to shift strategy, all with increased outside scrutiny. Every decision is analyzed in real-time, so the room for error is getting smaller and every mistake is magnified.

That’s why we are so excited to welcome the Monitor team to Deloitte. This transaction combines the strengths of both our networks – including thought leadership, talent, resources, and global reach -- to further solidify Deloitte as a worldwide leader in strategy consulting.

India manufacturing competitiveness

Executives often ask me about the manufacturing landscape in India. Based on my observations during a recent visit to India and my ongoing discussions with our clients, India is a vibrant market which continues to attract investment interest. This trend indeed is echoed in the 2013 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index report released by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited’s (DTTL) Global Manufacturing Industry group.  The global industry survey had over 550 respondents, who were chief executive officers (CEOs) and senior leaders at manufacturing companies around the world. These executives ranked India as the fourth most competitive nation today and believe that the country will rise up in the rankings to be the second most competitive manufacturing nation in five years. As you can imagine, there were many executives and government officials in India who were very interested to hear more about the study, so my trip back to India last month was very timely.

Insights into IFRS Insurance - Greater certainty for new insurance accounting rules

The unprecedented scale of the reform to achieve consistent profit reporting across the global insurance sector is now fully visible. Preparing for the multi-year implementation effort is an imperative for all insurance companies immediately after their 2012 earnings release next year.

A substantial leap forward

During November the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) has made a substantial leap forward in removing the uncertainty that surrounded, for the past several months, the timing and content of the fundamental reform of financial reporting rules for insurance companies.

The repercussion of these new decisions is about to produce a significant impact across the global insurance sector, since insurers’ major concern around uncertainty has been addressed. Some of the global software houses have already invested thousands of man-days in the development of solutions to address this challenge and ‘first-movers’ are already developing an approach to the implementation challenges.

Frontier markets peak manufacturers’ interests

During a recent trip to Tokyo, I met with 40 leaders from Deloitte member firms across the Asia Pacific region to discuss what is happening in this dynamic market. As you might imagine, China and India dominated the conversation, but several other countries in the region, often referred to as the next frontier growth markets, were very much part of the discussion.

With the expected government leadership changes this month and signals that manufacturing activity is declining, executives are closely watching what is happening in China. Last month, a 7.4 percent year-on-year rise in China's gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter was announced. Some believe however that those government statistics may be more optimistic than the reality experienced by many manufacturers in China. This is the weakest announced growth rate since the start of 2009 and the seventh straight quarter of decline. Many executives are cautiously waiting to see what the new Chinese leadership will do to spur accelerated economic growth and improve manufacturing industry activity.

Can innovation be underpinning a Manufacturing Renaissance?

I had the privilege of speaking a few weeks back at the Australian Industry Group National Forum, the premier industry event which is held annually at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia. More than 350 CEOs, senior executives, and government officials listened to an array of local and international speakers address some of the major issues and big ideas on Australia’s national agenda together with strategies to improve the industry competitiveness. It was quite an honor to be invited to participate in this session.

During my presentation, which was featured in ABC TV’s The Business program (see video clip) I shared perspectives of how innovation is at the heart of what some are calling a “Manufacturing Renaissance” or an industry revival. Often overlooked as a place for innovation, manufacturing continues to be on the leading edge of innovation. You just have to look at the bold innovation plays that are happening today in areas such as advanced materials systems, additive manufacturing, and sustainable mobility.

Rio+20 demonstrates that we’re “headed in the right direction”

As more than a week of activities at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) concluded yesterday, I think everyone who contributed thought leadership, put their and their organization’s support behind conference goals, and supported the sessions should be happy with where the conference ended: that is, happy that change is happening and that we are headed in the right direction, but not, in my opinion, content to think the work is done.

As you know from our messages over the past week, Rio+20 set out to help shape new policies to promote global prosperity, reduce poverty, and advance social equity and environmental protection.  Along those lines, those of us who participated in a related conference over the past several days—the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum (CSF)—had three specific goals in mind:

• Set the stage for further growth for companies engaged in sustainable development
• Demonstrate that many solutions for sustainable development already exist
• Demonstrate concrete, tangible action on a massive scale

Integrating sustainability and the environment into an effective business education

Rio is an exciting cosmopolitan city but even this dynamic and festive city received a jolt of activity when 5,000 registrants arrived this week for the much-anticipated United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). One of my first activities after I arrived was to take part in the “Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) Summit” which preceded the official opening of Rio+20. 

As many of you know, education is a primary global focus for corporate responsibility at Deloitte, so it was energizing to hear discussions around the future role of business management education in creating the society we all want and deserve. The PRME initiative is a partnership of a number of academic and public sector international organizations that support the notion of business schools having a unique niche at the forefront of innovation for sustainable development. These groups believe that action must be taken now to envision and implement a business education construct that adequately takes sustainability issues and the environment into consideration of how business gets done.

Ready Set Go! Rio+20 starts

And so it starts!  What an especially exciting time to be in Rio de Janeiro!  I am here for some of the numerous events being held over the next few days in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the original Rio summit on the environment held here in 1993.  In fact, this week's much-anticipated event has been given the catchy name of "Rio+20," because of this milestone year.  The more formal name is the United Nations Global Compact Corporate Sustainability Forum and it kicks off this evening with an opening ceremony and reception.