CEO Summit Addresses the Strategic Business Realities of Globalization

Leaders encourage their peers to leverage resources, technology, and local talent in international markets to ensure economic survival.

In May 2007, a select group of more than 50 chief executive officers and chairmen discussed their successes, challenges, and critical business issues at the 9th Annual CEO Summit in Pebble Beach, California.

It’s the ninth year that Booz Allen Hamilton has co-sponsored this invitation-only event, which provides a platform for insights into trends on the minds of CEOs. This year, the theme was “Leading the Global Enterprise” and featured views of the worldwide business environment from three perspectives: Strategy, leadership, and finance:

Strategy – Companies must adapt and overcome market differences, and exploit opportunities that didn’t exist a decade ago
Leadership – Global CEOs must consider elements as diverse as currency exchange, cultural sensitivities, cross-border intellectual property rights, and supply chain management in their business plans
Finance – Companies must ensure they have the capital for global expansion

Keynote speakers included Mike Splinter, president & CEO, Applied Materials and Michael White, CEO, PepsiCo International and vice chairman, PepsiCo, Inc.

Summit attendees included recognized names: Denise Morrison, president, Campbell Soup USA; Dawn Lepore, chairman & CEO, drugstore.com; Tom Schmitt, CEO, Global Supply Chain Services, FedEx; John Chen, chairman & CEO, Sybase; and Maggie Wilderotter, CEO, Citizens Communications.

Promising newcomers were also represented, such as Carl Liebert, CEO of 24 Hour Fitness, whose fitness centers have established a foothold in China, and Phillip Alvelda, CEO of MobiTV—the 8th largest television provider in the U.S.

Speakers highlighted concerns facing corporate leadership worldwide. For example, figures point to a palpable shift in global purchasing power. It’s estimated that in 2000, the U.S. owned 31% of the world’s GDP; it now owns only 28%, while the purchasing power of China and India has increased to about $12 trillion, similar to that of the U.S.

What made the 2007 CEO Summit unique? “The topic—globalization; the breadth of companies represented, including their size, industry, and geography; and the speakers from PepsiCo International, The Wall Street Journal, Advanced Micro Devices, and other organizations,” Booz Allen senior vice president Steven Wheeler says.

Says senior vice president Eric Spiegel: “The summit helps Booz Allen build awareness and engage other CEOs in a positive, open, and relatively risk-free environment. Interacting with CEOs helped us all better understand leadership issues, test ideas, and build new and better relationships. It was also a great environment for honing senior management relationship skills through dozens of personal interactions with CEOs in a compressed time period.”

The Leadership Challenges of Entering Expanding Global Markets

Summit participants agreed that, as international markets have exploded, executives, governments, and even educational institutions are now interacting within a global enterprise. In a world where virtually every country is a potential business market, a global perspective is now a required element of strategic business growth.

The impact of the international business market is obvious and growing, and it is generally accepted that companies that build strength overseas will eventually threaten other corporations’ home markets. Leaders attending the summit recognized the urgency to assess and often change the way they promote brands, adapt to local markets, recruit and develop talent, scale their services and products, and tailor products or services to local preferences, such as packaging and flavors.

“CEOs are increasingly challenged by globalization, especially when addressing strategic and leadership challenges,” says Wheeler. “Several Booz Allen senior VPs and VPs participated in person, and many more helped involve other CEOs in the event. It provided the opportunity to understand the key issues on these CEOs’ agendas and develop long-term relationships with them.”

The group shared real-world solutions and best practices to address expanding global markets. New challenges were at the top of the discussion agenda, including how to recruit local talent in targeted countries while training home-grown management for overseas positions; strategic challenges involved in marketing in communities with different priorities, values, and sensitivities; and thinking across diverse time zones, cultures, and economies.

The bottom line: Corporate players who leverage technology, talent, resources, and finances in global markets will benefit from the challenge of international expansion.

Booz Allen participants included senior vice presidents DeAnne Aguirre, Wheeler, and Spiegel, vice president Andrew Clyde, and Nikos Mourkogiannis, Panthea senior vice president.

Key points of the summit will be summarized in The Wall Street Journal.

story posted May 29, 2007