Panel Speakers - IESE Blog Community - IESE Business School

10 IESE Business School
Panel Descriptions
Track 5 – prominent Challenges and opportunities in
Social Development
Hunger, conflicts, poverty, children being denied their basic rights: how is society addressing these long-standing
problems of humanity? While we still haven’t been able to completely solve these issues, there has been important
progress in the right direction. In this track we will debate a diverse selection of topics that revolve around this
progress, including sustainable agriculture, economic peace and the challenges faced by an aging society. We will
also discuss topics related to practical examples of initiatives that used to bring a new world of opportunities to unprivileged
people and try to understand what is the role of sports and vocational training to drive social change.
a) Can Investments in Agriculture be Profitable and Ensure Positive Social Impact?
b) Economic Incentives and the Role of the Private Sector: Is it Sufficient for Achieving a Long-term Sustainable
Peace?
c) Football: a Global Sport and a Powerful Tool to Drive Social Change
d) Investment in Large Sport Events: Are There Better Uses of These Enormous Funds that could Guarantee
Longer-term Benefits to Country’s Citizens?
e) Is Old the New Young? How to approach the challenge of an elderly society?
f) GDP vs. HDI: the Right Measure of Human Welfare
Track 6 – addressing the Challenges at the bottom of the pyramid
Almost half of the world lives under the poverty line. Depending on the definition that one uses to define poverty
line, this number can reach almost 80% of human population. If this number does not convince corporations and
society to look to the bottom of the pyramid, what will? The fact is that large corporations can no longer deny this
big chunk of the population, and nor can society. In this track will look at how to address current issues being
faced in Africa, how to foster a more equilibrate power relation with fair trade, how to create incentives for doing
research for the cure of the diseases of the BoP and how to design product for the BoP.
a) What Does it Take to Replicate the Asian Economic Miracle in Africa? Doing business on the “Forgotten Continent”
b) How Do Companies Formulate Strategies to Approach Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP)?
c) Neglected Tropical Diseases: an Innovative Business Model to Eradicate Them
d) Fair Trade: A Philanthropic Initiative that is Becoming a Private, Sustainable and Profitable Business
e) Developing Relevant Innovations, Products and Services that Target the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP), the 4
Billion People Who Live on Less Than $2.5 Dollars/Day