I'm Manveen Rana here at Davos and I'm joined by Neeraj from BCG.
Thank you for joining us.
You've been talking to a lot of people here.
Just give us a sense of what are the challenges you're hearing
that are really facing leaders in the Asia Pacific region at
the moment.
I think there are three things I pick up.
One is geopolitics, it's ever changing :
war, elections, etc. etc.
So that's on people's mind.
GenAI
How real is it?
What do I do with this new thing? And climate.
Is this really time for action?
These are the three things that pick up.
And for the Asia Pacific, is it war that's worrying them more?
Or is it climate?
I mean, what's the biggest worry?
Is it elections?
No, I think it's not worry.
It's just that there's volatility.
I wouldn't say people are worried, but people are dealing with a
lot of volatility.
And I think CEOs want to get to terms with it, because big
decisions are pending and it could mean different things for their companies.
And what are the opportunities that people see?
So each of them also has opportunity, like when there is
volatility, I mean the companies which are doing well, outperform
the others.
So that's an opportunity.
So there's more difference between big performing, high
performing companies and less performing companies in the time
of volatility.
So people want to lean in, in that period.
Climate by itself is a big opportunity for Asia Pacific.
Our maths says it's the most impacted continent on the
climate side, but also which has the most opportunity.
So the amount of GDP globally, we say 18% of GDP can get
impacted by rising temperatures.
In Asia the number is 25% of the GDP.
But lo and behold, of the ten trillion dollar opportunity to
create new businesses in climate, about 40% plus of them
are in Asia.
So I look at the glass half full, not the glass half empty.
So what is the advice you're giving people? Leaders in in the
Asia Pacific region?
I think this is a time when Asia increasingly is more and
more a blueprint for the world at large.
I think many of the Asian leaders are coming of an era of
confidence now.
They bring confidence into this.
They're no longer small companies, many of them have
been quite innovative.
So I think they're coming in, not as the young kids on the block,
but many of them have quite arrived.
So I think the advice is to say, look, this is a period to lean
On GenAI particularly, for example.
I think I would tell the Asian
leaders: you want to be at the forefront of it.
This is a big revolution and you don't want to be a laggard in
embracing this.
So that's clear. On geopolitics the advice is: have scenario
planning on your agenda.
If you're the CEO, you need to be ready for scenario planning.
And on climate, depending on the sector you're in, depending on
where you are in the value chain, this has to be a part of
your strategy as well.
This is coming.
This is important.
Well, thanks very much for sharing those insights with us,
Neeraj, it's been a pleasure to talk. Likewise, Manveen.
Pleasure.