Global Speakers
The United States Can Learn from High School Students
in India, China
The United States’ attitude toward high school, where athletic ability is often valued more than academic prowess, could threaten the nation’s future, warns venture capitalist Robert Compton. “The fault lies not in our schools but in ourselves.”
India’s Economic Growth is Missing the Poor
India’s economy has doubled in the past decade, but Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen told a Business School audience the benefits are not being shared equally by all levels of Indian society.
Former Mexican President Fox Optimistic
Mexico, the United States’ largest trading partner with Latin America’s highest per capita income, is expected to become the world’s fifth largest economy by the year 2040 former Mexican President Vicente Fox told a Business School audience.
International Markets are Growing for FedEx Express
By keeping its eye on technology, International FedEx Express avoids going the way of the Pony Express, the firm’s president, Michael Ducker, told a Business School audience.
InBev Practices No-Frills Approach to Corporate Leadership
Developing a cohesive corporate culture that trains leaders from the ground up and rewards strong performers based on merit is an important ingredient in financial success said Carlos Brito, chief executive officer of the Belgium-based company InBev, the world’s second-largest brewer.
Global Firms Must Understand Local Practices
Establishing Eli Lilly’s operations in China in the mid 1990s was complicated because the firm didn’t understand local dynamics, including how top employees would react to peers being promoted, the firm’s Chief Marketing Officer Robert Brown told a Business School audience.
Pondering the Ethics of Global Business
Ethical dilemmas such as selling other nations scanners that can tell the sex of an unborn child or kerosene heaters without safety features available in the United States were debated during a discussion on “Academic vs. Real World Ethics” led by Professor David Brady.
Brazil’s Cosan Seeks a Bigger Chunk of the Ethanol Market
As the demand for alternative fuels grows, Brazil’s Cosan-one of the world’s top growers and producers of sugarcane and ethanol-wants to increase its share of the world market for ethanol, the firm’s chief financial officer Paulo Diniz told a Stanford Graduate School of Business audience.
Infosys Leaders Discuss Benefiting Stakeholders and Society
Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murty, two of India’s best known executives, share their experiences in leadership and management with current MBA students during a visit to campus as the first Denning Distinguished Fellows in Global Business and the Economy.
Kenyan Bank Focus of Case Study at Graduate School of Business
A student trip to Kenya introduced a Stanford Business School professor to a successful Nairobi bank and led to a case study that links MBA students to the African continent.
First Generation Entrepreneurs Build the Chinese Market Says Baidu's Wang
China today is poised to become a global powerhouse but its entrepreneurs face major challenges as they chart their roadmaps to success without the network that exists in the United States, said Shawn Wang, CFO of the Chinese internet giant Baidu. (May 2007)
Nike Foundation Aims to Improve the Lives of 500 Million Girls
The Nike Foundation has zeroed in on a pressing need, says Maria Eitel, who heads the organization: the plight of 500 million girls in many of the world's most impoverished countries who are cut off from taking part in their nations' economies. (May 2007)
If It's India They Must Be Lentil Chips
Curry lentil snacks in India, chili lime in Mexico. The chairman of PepsiCo International says he would rather follow local tastes than force an unwanted flavor on a market. (March 2007)
Michael White video, (51:31 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
Commercial Bank of China Grows Its International Reputation
Bank president Yang Kaisheng described to a Stanford Business School audience how Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's third largest international bank, successfully launched the world's largest initial public offering. (March 2007)
Bhatia Describes His New Urban Design Plans for India
Sabeer Bhatia, the man who created Hotmail, is hard at work building a new Indian city with social and environmental features he believes will attract well-educated workers and tech companies to employ them. (January 2007)
Video File, (57:02 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
2005-06 Speakers
Failure Is Important, Says Indian Tech Leader
Failure is an essential part of the innovative process, Azim Premji, chairman of the Indian outsourcing giant Wipro Technologies, told a Business School audience. He added that innovation is what enabled young startups to upset the existing balance of power. (October 2006)
Azim Premji video (47:22)
Empowering Workers Is the Key, Say Infosys Executives
Executives who want innovation and commitment from employees must model risk-taking and personal sacrifice in order to gain credibility and motivate employees, say two leading Indian entrepreneurs—N.R. Narayana Murthy and Sudha Murty. (May 2006)
Video File, (31:33 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
Chinese Consumers Likely to Set Product Standards in Future, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin Says
Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone, the company better known as Verizon in the United States, says the sheer size of China means its consumers will replace Americans as the customers who set product standards in the future. (April 2006)
Video File, (56:38 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
Carlos Ghosn, Nissan and Renault Partnership Benefits from Differences
Getting employees to work together to produce products that are attractive to customers is the key to success in 21st century business, says Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan and Renault. (February 2006)
Video File, (52:28 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
Farrell Promotes Direct Global Investment
Diana Farrell, director of the McKinsey Global Institute, says her group studied a number of cases of foreign direct investment and concluded that in almost every instance the practice generated large cost savings, usually accompanied by lower prices and higher quality for consumers. (February 2006)
Video File, (48:55 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
International Monetary Fund Changes with the Times says Anne Krueger
From the initial emergence of developing countries in Asia after World War II to the Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s, the transition of former Soviet bloc countries during the 1990s, and the sharp rise in international capital flows in more recent years, the International Monetary Fund has steadily redefined sound fiscal policy to fit the times, says Managing Director Anne Krueger. (February 2006)
Video File, (1:07 hour, RealPlayer® format)
Marketing–Even Chocolate Poses Challenges
Nestlé has created 4,300 brands from chocolate to pet food and must adjust formulas for many of these products to meet different tastes around the globe, says former global marketing head Ed Marra. (March 2006)
Video File, (1:04 hour, RealPlayer® format)
Offshoring Means New Challenges for Promoting Managers
Globalization is having a visible impact on corporations around the world by creating challenges in promoting and building top management teams, Ian Davis, managing director of McKinsey & Co., told a Business School audience. (November 2005) Video File, (35:06 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
Speakers 2005 and Earlier
Building Visa's World Brand
The Visa name not only resonated from the start, but at a time of rapid globalization when country-specific labels have become a liability in corporate names, it has become even stronger, John Elkins, executive vice president of global brand marketing at Visa International, told a Business School audience. (October 2005)
World Economies Are Rebalancing, Says International Banker John Bond
Technology is fast bridging geographical and economic barriers, empowering the people in some or the world's poorest countries, and transforming the ways corporations make money says, Sir John Bond, Group Chairman of HSBC, the international bank with 10,000 offices in 78 industrialized and developing nations. (April 2005)
Video File, (47:08 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
International Aid Agencies Still Crucial to Global Economic Growth
Rising prosperity in formerly poor and developing countries does not signal the obsolescence of international aid agencies, said recently retired World Bank managing director Peter Woicke. More than ever, developing countries are asking international aid organizations to facilitate—and help manage—the boom in private-sector investment. (February 2005)
Video File, (47:50 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
Citigroup's Stanley Fischer Paints a Cautious Economic Picture
Despite some encouraging global economic trends, Citigroup vice chairman Stanley Fischer warned that the United States and world economies face a growth slowdown in 2005.(January 2005)
Additional Speakers
Bernard Attali
President, Paris Regional Development Agency and former Chairman and CEO, Air France
Rodney Chase
Deputy Group Chief Executive, BP
Nicolas de Torrenté
U.S. Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders
Tim Draper
Founder and Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Mads Øvlisen
Chairman of the Board, Novo Nordisk A/S
Didier Reynders
Minister of Finance of Belgium and Chairman of the Euro Group
Kevin Roberts
Worldwide CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi (April 2002)Video File, (55:13 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
Kevin Sharer
Chairman of the Board, CEO, and President, Amgen
A. Michael Spence
Philip H. Knight Professor, Emeritus, and Former Dean, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and 2001 Nobel Laureate in Economic Science
Video File, (1:38 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
Linda Tsao Yang
Former U.S. Executive Director, Asian Development Bank
Jeroen van der Veer
Chairman of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies
Video File, (27:41 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
James Wolfensohn
World Bank President
Video File, (43:45 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
Muhammad Yunus
Economist and Founder, Grameen Bank of Bangladesh
"Visionary Economist Muhammad Yunus Shares Microlending Success Stories"
Video File, (32:24 minutes, RealPlayer® format)
Lorenzo Zambrano
Chairman and CEO, CEMEX (February 1998)
