The Sixth Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF), being held under the patronage of King Abdullah, was inaugurated here Saturday by Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr. Tawfiq Bin Fawzan Al-Rabeah at the Four Seasons Hotel in Kingdom Tower. Till Jan. 24, hundreds of business leaders from around the world will share their insights and opinions on “The Entrepreneurship Imperative” which is the overriding theme of this year's event. The GCF has grown over the past five years to become one of the biggest gatherings of political and business leaders. The event has also helped its organizers, the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), to launch important initiatives to highlight the progress Saudi Arabia has been making in pushing its economic competitiveness agenda. GCF 2012 sessions will discuss all forms of entrepreneurship (social, government, and corporate entrepreneurship) and related aspects such as failure and risk. GCF 2012 will feature Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Chairman of King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, Adel Fakieh, Minister of Labor, and Prince Faisal Bin Abdullah, Minister of Education. They are scheduled to deliver separate keynote addresses. George Buckley, Chairman and CEO of 3M, will deliver the keynote address for the opening session on Jan. 22, focusing on the institutionalization of entrepreneurship. Dr. John A. Quelch, Distinguished Professor of International Management, Vice President and Dean at CEIBS, the leading China-based international business school, will moderate most of the panel sessions at the Forum on the first day. Dr. Quelch is the Senior Associate Dean and Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and also a former Dean of London Business School. The sessions on the first day of the Forum are dedicated to the various aspects of entrepreneurship. “The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur”, “Dare to be Great – The Art of Failure”, “Artepreneurs: Creating Business and Jobs”, and “Generation C – Click, Connect, Communicate, Collaborate” are sessions that are expected to offer wide-ranging and interesting insights about business success and competitiveness in today's world. The list of key speakers and panel is an indication of the diversity of knowledge and experience likely to be shared at the Forum. It includes Magatte Wade, Entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of The Tiosanno Tribe; Christian Klingler, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG; Fadi Ghandour, Founder and CEO of Aramex; Len Schlesinger, President of Babson College; Hassan Al-Tawadi, Secretary General of Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee; Ana Dutra, CEO of Korn/Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting; Amy Rosen, President and CEO of Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship; Bruno Lafont, Chairman and CEO, Lafarge; David Sproul, Chief Executive of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Regions; Jean-Pascal Tricoire, President and CEO of Schneider Electric; Sean C. Rush, President and CEO of JA Worldwide; and Shahid Ansari, Provost of Babson College. Hans Paul Buerkner, President and CEO of Boston Consulting Group; James Turley, Chairman and CEO, Ernst & Young; Nandini Vaidyanathan, Founder and Mentor of CARMa; Stephen Pagliuca, Managing Director of Bain Capital and Co-Owner of Boston Celtics, and Victor Chu, Chairman of First Eastern Investment will address “The Art of Failure” session. The relationship between art and commerce, various aspects of cultural entrepreneurship and the role of modern technology in the business of art will be explored at the “Artpreneurship” session. It will feature Chris Dercon, Director of Tate Modern, London; Margo Drakos, Co-founder and CEO of InstantEncore.com; Patrick Schofield, Founder of Streetwire Artist's Collective; Stephen Stapleton, Founder of Edge of Arabia; and Thomas Krens, President of Global Cultural Asset Management. The morning sessions on Day 2 of the conference will focus on global risks, with a keynote address by Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Chairman of King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. The panel session on Global Risks, titled “The Challenges Ahead” will be moderated by John Defterios of CNN. Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Unilever CEO Paul Polman, Saud Bin Majid Al-Daweesh, Group CEO of Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Arif Naqvi, Founder and CEO of Abraaj Capital, Dennis M. Nally, Chairman and CEO of PriceWaterhouse Coopers and Robin Niblett, Director of Chatham House, London, will participate in the panel discussions. “An apple a day is no longer enough”, a session dedicated to healthcare, will look at the impact of technology on health while “Aerotropolis” will assess how the new model airports can become the key nodes of global production and enterprise systems by connecting workers, suppliers, executives, and goods to the global marketplace. Michael Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School, will deliver the keynote address on the third day of the Forum. The final day sessions focus on venture capital, intrapreneurship, “Greenovation”, impact of natural disasters, innovation, competitiveness, and disruptive technologies. The convergence of science, technology, engineering and math to create new solutions to complex challenges will be in focus at the subsequent session where the young will share their ideas.
