GSIF09 SUMMARIES

Plenary 1: Designing Our Future!

Thursday, 1 October   

• Huang Yasheng • Zainul Abidin Rasheed • Alvin Toffler • S Robson Walton 

Moderated by  • Penny Low  

  • Mr Toffler started off the session saying that the changes that are taking place are of historic consequence. Now, industries are replacing assembly workers with knowledge and service workers, signifying an increasing reliance on knowledge and information. Right now we are still focused on reconstructing the past instead of investing in the future. There is still an industrial approach to education, where public education provides the hard skills for industries; when the new knowledge economies need innovative workers capable of thinking independently.  His wife, Mrs Heidi Toffler, added that it is not the general crisis of capitalism, or the crisis of socialism, but the general crisis of industrialization.

  • Mr Walton said that climate change has awakened us to the importance economic growth grounded in a smarter and greener way. Wal-Mart relies on creative solutions by the workers on the ground to help with its forts. All that was needed was a simple idea from a guy in the break room and someone who was willing enough to listen to him and Wal-Mart was able to save billions of dollars in electricity bills. Sustainability is an important issue for Wal-Mart, as seen through the sustainable seafood program. Wal-Mart also promotes sustainability through working with its vendors everywhere, coming up with a more concrete sustainability index. 

  • Mr Zainul Abidin said that there should be an inclusive approach to solving the world’s problems of sustainable growth. No one should consider himself insignificant in solving them; we need to understand how to find a balance between capitalism and socialism because no one needs to be left behind in this changing world.

  • Professor Huang then proposed that there are four different challenges facing social entrepreneurs in developing countries:

               - Government regulation and licensing requirements that restrict mobility

               - Access to financial capital and the importance of financial deregulation

               - Business models

               - The need to grow human capital base 

  • Ms Low asked if we are able to measure success not only through financial indicators, but through social and environmental contributions, and if these could be a more inclusive measurement of success.

  • A participant commented that ethics is at the core of everything. In an age where consumption and disposability are the new religions; ethics should guide us in our decisions. 

  • A panelist replied that ethics is a good thing to have, but we should still be giving more focus to financial regulation to promote responsible economic growth.

  • Mr Toffler ended the session by saying that it is too simplistic to assume that the world will change according to how we predict it to change. We underestimate the speed of change, and we cannot recognize the complexity of complexity. 

Download GSIF09 Plenary 1 - Summary.