India Economic Summit 2008: Deloitte involvement

Global CEO Deloitte Jim Quigley served as a co-chairperson of the World Economic Forum's 24th India Economic Summit where he participated in four sessions in the official program.

In addition, leaders of Deloitte’s global industries participated in private workshops focused on projects in the  Life Sciences & Health Care and  Consumer Business sectors.

Deloitte leaders joined business and government leaders from around the world in helping to bring a global context to the challenges faced by India’s long-term growth. Sessions included:

After the fallout:  A new global corporate landscape?
Indian companies are valued at 25 percent less on average than one year ago, triggering an impact on foreign investments and cross-border acquisitions. How could this affect India's ability to shape the global corporate landscape? Discussions emphasized:

• A severe or prolonged recession in the United States and Europe will have an impact on demand for both goods and services produced in India, resulting in much slower than anticipated economic growth. 
• The most significant risk to India’s future growth is the current global financial crisis, which will affect India’s ability to invest in domestic infrastructure improvements necessary to support future growth. 
• Global coordination in response to the current financial crisis will be important. 
• Tight credit and the anticipated decline in foreign direct investments could provide Indian companies with an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage by becoming more innovative as they cope with severe resource constraints—including energy supply shortages, high commodity prices, and infrastructure limitations—that often confront companies operating in the Indian market.

Fostering emerging multinationals’ growth in times of crisis
Given the current global financial crisis, emerging multinationals from India and many other countries face the unique challenge—and opportunity—of continuing to be an important engine for growth. How can Indian companies achieve growth in tough economic times? Deloitte’s contribution to this discussion focused on a range of global growth strategies, including options related to mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures.

A skills shortage after the brain drain?
India’s demographic profile could make this nation one of the biggest exporters of human resources in the world for many years to come. However, the mobility of the new global workforce, rising remittances from nonresident Indians working abroad, and the availability and development of skilled labor in India could have an impact on growth in the country. Strategies for global management of talented professionals include:

• A fundamental shift in organizational thinking around talent management for India’s companies.
• Companies around the world—not just in India —are having trouble attracting, developing, and retaining the right people to meet customer or client needs.
• India must act on the importance of implementing a sound talent retention strategy, and the urgency of collaborating with educational institutions to develop and attract people with the right skills.

Securing India’s future growth
This panel discussion was dedicated to outlining important next steps for business and government to consider helping India secure future growth amid new realities. The discussion outlined India’s vast domestic consumer market and large pool of highly skilled talent, and how those and other factors will contribute to the country’s tremendous growth potential. Topics included:

• India’s beneficial demographic profile, specifically its large domestic consumer market and relatively young population. 
• The positive role of the manufacturing, services, and agricultural sectors in shaping India’s future growth. 
• Innovation and ongoing investments in productivity improvements for stronger growth.
• Further development of India’s infrastructure, as well as enhancements to the energy and financial sectors.

Private industry meetings
Deloitte’s global industry teams—specifically,  Consumer Business and  Life Sciences & Health Care—are official advisers to the WEF Industry Partnerships projects, providing intellectual capital and contributing research to the various project initiatives. Engaging CEOs from around the world, Deloitte global industry leaders participated in high-level private discussions on sustainability and other challenges facing the long-term health of India’s consumer sectors, including the following sessions.

Sustainability for tomorrow’s consumers 
The objective of the workshop was to explore the innovations required to do business in a resource-constrained world. The results of the meeting will provide input to the high-level CEO conversations in Davos, driven toward implementing solutions for sustainable consumption.

Innovation in and for the emerging markets 
There is an increasing risk of investing in life sciences innovation as R&D is becoming increasingly expensive and the eventual pricing and reimbursement for new products are becoming less certain and predictable. Many innovative products have the potential to reduce health care spending and improve patient outcomes. However, the valuation methods and approaches currently used to determine pricing and reimbursement levels are not necessarily providing sufficient incentives commensurate with the true value of new innovations. A new model for valuing innovation was explored.

Evening program
On Saturday 15 November 2008, nearly 100 business leaders from India and around the world joined hosts Udayan Sen, CEO and Managing Partner, Deloitte India, and Jim Quigley, Global CEO, Deloitte for a private dinner in New Delhi. The dinner was an opportunity for senior executives to engage in discussions about the future growth of India, and the opportunities and constraints of doing business in emerging markets. 

Learn more
India Economic Summit 2008
Articles and research
ePress kit
India Economic Summit 2007
Deloitte India
Official WEF site

Page Last Updated