Archive for February, 2010

SABF 2009 • SABF News

SABF Magazine 2009!

SABF 2010 Ex-Organizer

Despite the fact that SABF 2009 has already passed a few months ago, we would like to show you some experiences lived during those 3 days in our institutional magazine.  We invite you to download the magazine from the Media section of our website. You can also see it online here.

In case you are interested in sharing this magazine with students from your university, we have available some impressions to offer. Do not hesitate to send us an email to students@sabf.org.ar asking for them.

We hope you enjoy it and do not forget to share it with your friends!

Current Affairs

Paradigm Shift: the “Trust Crisis”

SABF 2010 Ex-Organizer

The following text outlines Guido Weber‘s point of view regarding the international context of nowadays. Guido is a Delegate for the sixth edition of the South American Business Forum and, as such, we thank him for his generous contribution to our blog. We invite the rest of the SABF community to enrich it with your opinions.

Today’s world seems to be whipped by one of the worst crisis in human history. Instead of facing a financial global problem we are stuck in a “Trust Crisis” – a definition from Cristóbal Montoro, Spanish politician responsible for the economic area of the Popular Parliamentary Group. This crisis transcended the financial, economic and political field and reaches every single human being on our planet. Nowadays, the idea of recovering lost money, increasing business volumes o saving some companies does not longer matter. The big issue is how to satisfy the basic needs of a worldwide population in growth with a planet that is producing beyond its capacities, in a recessive and trustless context of our actual model. No doubt this is an outlook without previous similar records and where exist few or none ideas related with “how to drive with your eyes closed in an unknown highway”.

Every single moment of crisis – like the one I am talking about – brings, as a consequence, the breaking of the present paradigm, making place to a new business worldview and a new role of the citizen, inhabitant, institution, company and government. Obviously, the financial problem is the inflection point that led to think over the way we live, we produce and the way business are done. We have in front of us uncertainty.  It is extremely needed the presence of new alternatives, concepts/ideas, new agents of change and leaders that broadcast the future rules of the game. All of this will allows us to see the reality in which we are all immersed.

Lately, issues related with environment, natural and energy resources and the health of our unique planet had started to increasingly occupy a space in countries, companies, organizations and institutions agendas. This is a dazzling time to wake up our leaders and agents of change present on these spaces to lead us in a new path, not only in business, but to enjoy life in general terms.

The mentioned “Trust Crisis” lets the consumers be more rational and to question themselves more deeply which are the actual leaders, how are they performing their leadership, how do they employ Earth’s resources and especially: Is this a sustainable model?

SABF News

New Media Section!

SABF 2010 Ex-Organizer

In this opportunity we would like to tell you that in our SABF website we opened the Media section. There, you will be able to obtain all the diffusion material. Actually, you can find:

  • SABF 2010 Video
  • Flyer
  • Poster
  • Institutional Magazine.
  • Banners
  • SABF logo.

We invite you to discover this new section and use all the material in order to share it with your friends. You can show them, in an attractive way, what SABF is.

Do not forget that you can apply in http://apply.sabf.org.ar until May 9th!

Current Affairs

Young people who don’t study or work: a global problem?

SABF Board

In this opportunity I would like to share with you an article published on 11th February in the newspaper La Nación from Argentina. It talks about the worries related with the great number of Argentinean young people that does not work or study.

Guillermo Jaim Etcheverry mentioned a similar figure, nearly a million of Argentinean, in the fifth edition of SABF, so it did not take me by surprise. Nevertheless, that number kept spinning in my head while I was figuring out a completely different scene: where at least a part of those young people could progress, by working or studying. No doubts that reaching this objective would imply working together with a wide array of agents such as the role of family, nutrition, etc.., what I mean, basic issues that Alberto Sileoni mentions in the article. On one hand, the State should be the main responsible to solve these issues, but in this case I would not prefer to focus on how it should proceed in order to solve them but to stress the importance of other variables that would let us have more work possibilities. This is the reason why I want to discuss what can we do to change this reality.

Most probably, the way we work out this issue may be in an indirect way and in the long term, contributing to a viable and sustainable solution in order to prevent the subordination of the actions from a particular government. Thinking in the subtopics that are proposed in this sixth edition of SABF, we can think over different alternatives: from a socially responsible company: is there any way that these young people have a role on it and could progress? Or is it an utopian solution? From the synergy side, how can we gather these young people to develop their potential? Related to the citizen holding, could this be the way to find solutions with a high impact in the long term?

There is no doubt this is a root problem, even more complex than it is presented in this article. Besides, some of these ideas, if tried to be implemented would only have a superficial effect. But, on the other hand, these ideas could be the only we can reach and, together, they could generate a change that modifies reality in the long term.

In spite of the fact that this article mentions the particular case of Argentina, this issue is happening word widely, for example in USA or France, and maybe due to different reasons. That is why I would like to know how different is this reality to the one in your countries, which motives do you think that cause the marginalization of so many young people and what can we do to try to improve the situation. I am all ears!

Miscellaneous

SABF’s 2010 VIDEO

SABF Board

We want to share with you all the SABF’s 2010 video. We hope you enjoy it and we encourage you to spread it between your contacts.

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTEHr5CPzTg

We also want to remind you that the inscription period to participate in the selection process ends in May 9th.

Current Affairs

Made in China

SABF Board Member

A few days ago, Al Gore published an article about China and renewable energies, which makes reference to another article in the New York Times. The giant Asian is on the top of the renewable energies business, as it becomes the world’s most important producer of wind turbines, leaving Denmark, Germany, Spain and the USA behind.

The article points out that some of the advantages that China has over other countries are its high domestic demand (which escalates at 15% a year) and its advanced energetic equipment. Besides, the working costs are very low and the state property banks provide financing.

It is clear that there is a need to start taking into consideration the inconveniences of climate change, as well as the measures that can be taken, the legislation that can be promoted, the habbits that can be changed, etc. This presents us with opportunities in new industries, very littled explored by Latin America, but that can provide great benefits if we know how to profit from them. How can we capitalise these needs?

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