October 7th and 8th were busy days for MIM-Kyiv. More than 700 participants from different parts of the world gathered together online to discuss all aspects of competitiveness in the new normal at the true discussion platform where different viewpoints meet and new ideas are born. Keeping the platform open for the free flow of ideas from all over the world makes the Forum different from other international events. Having those who are setting the pace of the changes speak to our participants keep the event future-oriented.
Prof. Michael Porter, who is one of the most influential thinkers of today, the most cited author in business and economics, and the Director of Harvard’s ISC delivered the keynote speech. In it, he discussed economic and social development strategy, the COVID-19 short and long-term impact on competitiveness, and talked about the adjustments policymakers need to make. He also mentioned about how the results of the competitiveness research can apply to Ukraine.
A warm welcome from Serhii Demediuk, Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and participation of Pavlo Klimkin, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine, and Oksana Markarova, former Minister of Finance of Ukraine proved the importance of the Forum for the country.
Prof. Christian Ketels, the faculty member and visiting Executive at HBS and Chair of the Advisory Board at TCI Network in his presentation on how the competitiveness upgrades under the shadow of COVID-19 demonstrated the scale of disruption and emerging opportunities. Prof. Fernando Alberti the director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness at the LIUC in Italy together with Arturo Bris, the Director IMD World Competitiveness Center in Switzerland, and Pavlo Klimkin participated in the panel discussion about the impact of the COVID-19 born strategies for business, education and public administration.
Social implications of staying competitive were the central theme of the second day of the discussion. Prof. Zbigniew Bochniarz, Professor at Kozminski University in Poland, Dr. Piet Naudé, the Director of the University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa, Dr. Marzenna Weresa, Director of the World Economy Research Institute at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics, and Oksana Markarova, former Minister of Finance of Ukraine were discussing how to strike balance between the need to be competitive and the demands of social progress in the new reality. This panel paid special attention to how the developing economies can play on their strengths, grab the opportunities created by the current disruption for the success in the new normal.
In addition to the “live” presentations and discussion, Örjan Sölvell, the Director, Center for Strategy and Competitiveness (CSC) at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE) shared his video presentation on Clusters & Disruption. The concept of clusters is believed to be one of the most powerful in the current management thought.
Nadia Omelchenko, Vice-President of the leading Ukrainian system integrator IT-Integrator, popular entrepreneur, and MIM-Kyiv MBA said “The idea of staying competitive against all odds is very appealing to me. It is very in line with ideas of diversity that turned out to be good for business and securing social progress as well. As an IT person, I am a strong believer in clusters. Hope, our IT industry will get clustered. I’m glad that MIM-Kyiv is always on the cutting edge of global trends.”
Prof. Iryna Tykhomyrova, the president of MIM-Kyiv in her welcome speech said, “We believe that our Forum is a very important educational event because we have a true discussion platform where different viewpoints meet and new ideas are born. Keeping our platform open for the free flow of ideas from all over the world makes our Forum different from other international events. Having those who are setting the pace of the changes speak to our participants keep us future-oriented. We at MIM-Kyiv believe that education and partnerships are key instruments for solving any problem. That’s why we will do our best to conduct the third Annual International Forum in 2021.”