Note from Editor-In-Chief

Our themes for this issue of Thinkers revolve around Innovation, Infrastructure & Information Technology—cornerstones for creating competitive and collaborative global economies in the 21st Century. We have been fortunate to have experts from academia, government and business from around the world share their insights on these dynamic and pertinent themes in the form of articles, keynote speeches, panel discussions & interviews. I am pleased to share that this issue of Thinkers also features key thought leadership excerpts from the 2015 Global Federation of Competitiveness Council (GFCC) Annual Meeting & Global Innovation Summit (GIS) held at King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia. The Summit comprised vibrant & thought provoking discussions on making our cities competitive and the role of policy makers, government, academia and private citizens and entrepreneurs in this regard. Saudi Arabia continues to be a key destination for not only professionals seeking a better quality of life but also for toursists wanting to flavour the exocitism and modernism of this desert country. From H.E. Abdullatif A. Al-Othman, Governor and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority to The Honorable Deborah L. Wince-Smith, President, Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils and President and CEO, Council on Competitiveness, the 3-day Summit provided an opportunity to those who attended, to listen to what they and other experienced minds on the topics of competitiveness in building cities, governance, technology & infrastructure had to say. Deborah Wince-Smith’s splendid piece on Infrastructure in the Age of Innovation to Michael E.Porter’s interview to Sajjan Jindal on what the future holds for us in the age of smart, connected products to Rajiv Bajaj’s and Sangita Reddy’s contributions on the challenges and opportunities for Indian firms from the perspective of their respective sectors to pertinent panel discussion on the policy landscape for global competitiveness, to many more such articles, I sincerely believe this carefully curated issue will be a valuable and informative addition to your reading list. Our world and our nations stand at challenging crossroads, be it because of climate change, growing sectarianism or depleting resources and in my view the strong and erudite mind tends to look for solutions and positive outcomes to these challenging circumstances. We have tried to capture in this issue precisely those outcomes which give us something to work towards with hope and optimism. Filled with facts and anecdotes that lend legitmacy to the ideas proposed, I hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we did putting it together!

The 10 Principles of Implementation Excellence

Big Idea by Herminia Ibarras

Using Reframing, Design & Business Model Thinking to Lift the Bottom of the Pyramid

Working Fearlessly in the Face of Wicked Problems

Building competitiveness and cutting edge innovation in India

Best for Talent

The competitive potential of clusters

Note from Editor-In-Chief

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