Live from the World Business Forum: International Insights Panel

Last week Kathy, the founder of the Hot Mommas Project, presented me with the amazing opportunity to attend the World Business Forum.  I, of course, took her up on her offer and early this morning I headed to New York City for the big event.  Today was the second day of the forum.  Due to my class schedule, I was not able to make it to any of the first day’s events.  Kathy, however, was in attendance and blogged from the forum on the Hot Mommas insider’s blog.

The first segment of today’s forum was the International Insights Panel.  During this time, many renowned leaders in international business gave their perspectives on economic and other business issues.  They discussed how their industries have been impacted by the events of the past few years and gave global solutions for issues such as the financial crisis and climate change.  To be honest, I felt a little distanced when I first arrived at the conference; I knew that the vast majority of those around me were extremely educated, professional, and experienced in their fields.  As a college sophomore, I have limited experience with business.  However, the speakers on the International Insights Panels included many anecdotes that I could relate to, and I ended up taking away a lot from their speeches.  The following speakers are those who I personally learned the most from.

Francisco Gonzalez, Chairman and C.E.O. of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), was one of my favorite speakers on the panel.  BBVA is the second largest bank in Spain and the seventh largest in the world.  Gonzalez shared many business strategies for challenging economic times.  He offered BBVA’s solution, which focuses on three pillars – principles, people, and innovation.  His company strives to know its customers and serve them well, invest in technology and provide the best services with the lowest average cost, and take advantage of any new opportunities that arise that will allow BBVA to better itself.  I took these as great general strategies for running a successful businesss.

Peter Voser, the C.E.O. of Dutch Shell, was another speaker who I particularly enjoyed.  Voser focused on energy solutions and discussed the strategies that Shell has employed during tough economic times.  I found Voser fascinating, as I am very interested in climate change and business leaders’ perspectives on the environment.  I will be working full-time in business in a few years and I hope to be committed to personal and professional accountability.  Voser mentioned a convention that will occur in Copenhagen this December – the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference.  The goal of this convention is to bring governments and organizations from around the world together to discuss possible resolutions to the effects of global warming.  There is a lot of interesting information on the conference at the COP15 website, located at  http://en.cop15.dk/.

The final speaker on the panel was Roger Agnelli, the President and C.E.O. of Vale.  Vale is  the second-largest mining company in the world.  Agnelli has been called “the best strategist in Brazil” and worked in investment baking before he became involved with the mining industry.  He noted that the primary difference in the banking and mining industries is time; investment banking moves quickly, while the mining industry seems very heavy or slow.  Agnelli was very optimistic about the future of the mining industry and his company.  Overall, he was animated and a very interesting speaker.

All of the speakers in the International Insights Panel gave compelling perspectives on global business and the economy.  As a current GW Business School student, I feel very privileged to here among so many influential leaders in business.

Post by Amber Hunnicutt, GW student and Hot Mommas Project intern. You can follow her on Twitter at @HotMommasIntern.