Frost & Sullivan’s flagship congress on Growth, Innovation & Leadership opens in Singapore

Hosted in 5 cities around the world, Frost & Sullivan’s premier CEO congress GIL Global opened in Singapore on 18th October. Asia Pacific Growth, Innovation and Leadership Congress (GIL 2010: Asia Pacific) will be held over two days at Resorts World Convention Centre in Singapore.

Today, the business world is even more competitive and the bar rises higher every year. Markets are moving faster, they are increasingly complex and continuously being impacted by the challenges and issues that affect planet health (both human and environmental health). To overcome these barriers, we need to bridge the gap between corporate growth and planet health, promoting healthy and sustainable growth. And the first step in doing so is to develop solid growth strategies that accelerate growth, drive innovation and support the development of visionary leadership.

Hosting over 200 senior business executives from the region, the key highlights of congress this year was on bridging the gap through the upcoming Mega trends that will impact the next generation of businesses, culture and society on the whole.

Delivering his opening address at the congress was David Frigstad, Chairman of Frost & Sullivan. David highlighted that in reality it is increasingly difficult to propel above average industry growth rates without a robust growth driver. In his sharing he introduced the Growth Acceleration System™ (a 360 Degree Visionary Perspective) that empowers companies to develop a greater visionary perspective in their industry and implement it at best practice levels.

Following this Manoj Menon, Partner and Asia Pacific Managing Director at Frost & Sullivan, shared the 2020 Mega trends that will impact businesses, societies and cultures around the world.¹

“Identifying these Mega trends is just the start of contemporary business management. Amidst increasing demands and escalating competition, it has become impossible to not notice the synergy that the various industries hold in the near future. Thus, it is not a revelation that these Mega trends are synergetic and inter-wined with each other. Understanding the eco-system of these Mega trends and the elements within that offer the most advantageous business opportunity has to be placed as the utmost priority for CEOs of this day and age.” says Manoj.

Following the revelation of the Mega trends the congress tapped the minds of the thought leaders at the CEO Panel Discussion: Leadership – The New Frontiers: Building Sustainable Businesses. Industry luminaries Vinod Kumar, President and COO of Tata Communications, Prof. John A. Davis, Dean, of SP Jain Center of Management and Karmjit Singh, Consultant to President/CEO of Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS) along with David Frigstad, Chairman of Frost & Sullivan discussed the importance of Asia in today’s global business environment and the challenges that Asian leaders face in laying a firm foundation of building sustainable enterprises for the future.

With most of the populations moving towards urbanization, how will be our cities by 2020. Will the cities be able to efficiently manage the needs of future? Smart Cities track discussed the security, connected –city and mobility aspect of the future intelligent cities. Case studies from proposed and existing Smart Cites were also presented in this track.

The global trend of the change in demographics and ageing population presents new exciting opportunities, for the Healthcare industry. New collaborative business models, holistic and mobile healthcare, and the development of biosimilars business were discussed in this track.

Cloud Computing is the hottest buzz-word in the information and communication technologies industry. Questions like - is it a hype or a major–shift in the way we use Information Technology, what is the value to an end-user and potential opportunity for the provider along with a what is a right approach to deploy Cloud for an Enterprise were discussed in the Cloud Computing track.

Clean Technologies track discussed how Clean Technologies are enabling the development of sustainable energy & environment infrastructure and how industry convergence is reshaping the business models. Wrapping up day 1 with the growth focused presentations, panel discussions and concurrent tracks the summit ended with a gala 2010 Best Practices Awards banquet.

The second day of the congress will focus on Innovation with a panel discussion on The State of Innovation in today’s business environment. Moderated by Kavan Mukhtyar, Partner at Frost & Sullivan, the panel will hear thought provoking ideas from Datuk Dr. Mohinder Singh, Fellow, Akademi Sains Malaysia, Mike Langton, Chief Innovizer, INNOVIZE, Prof Desai Narasimhalu, Director, Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Singapore Management University.

Further into the day concurrent career tracks titled Corporate Strategy: Sustainability: The Next Competitive Advantage, Marketing: Driving New Standards in Customer Focus and R&D/Innovation: From Research to Revenue will be held for delegates to empower them to be a valued driver in their company’s growth strategy. The Econo