It's been a fascinating World Economic Forum annual meeting over here in Davos, Switzerland, for all sorts of reasons. Firstly, the topics which have been identified this year. Artificial intelligence. That's been a huge focus. Sustainability. But the backdrop of all of this is the crisis that we face in so many parts of the world. The war in West Asia, the expansion of that war in the Red Sea area, the continuing crisis in the Ukraine. Amidst all of this, there's the India growth story. India, Quite clearly an outlier to global growth. Which is what? About 2.9% India growing at more than 7%. Joining us now. A wonderful guest, sir Martin. So thank you very much, sir. That was a Hollywood introduction, was it? What for you, uh was the highlight of Davos this time. Was it the themes picked up? Was it the India story? Perhaps, Uh, well, obviously the the story was you know, we had What was it? Three states who had 444 and lots of ministries and lots of ministries. Um II. I think the coordinations is is important when you have that amount of effort. So that was a a highlight, but I think, look, I think my my sort of takeaway, as they say was that people are a little bit more optimistic than I anticipated. I mean, that's English understatement. They were. We had one session yesterday where, you know, there were journalists in it, and the journalists tried to bring everybody back to what they thought was reality. You know, the comment was you must be smoking something. Um, because the people, uh, which they were government witnesses, finance ministers. There were the private sector, um, including representation from India and the general mood. You know, when asked, do you think 2024 would be better than 2023? Uh, almost a majority of the people in the room put their hands up, which Yes, yes, yes. Which is very surprising because coming here, you know, there's the the doom and gloom surrounding the three. I mean, you touched on two of them. There's obviously US China relationships or lack of them by from which India benefits. Actually, uh, secondly, there's the Russia Ukraine situation and thirdly, thirdly Iran. And who thought that we would have Iran and Pakistan trading trading missiles with with one another. Whilst we've been sitting in Davos. Yes, absolutely, Um, and and berating one another in Davos. So So I think the the That's the the biggest thing. Um, you mentioned a I. There's a lot of chat around it. There's a lot of focus on it. We can get into the detail of how it affects our industry. The big thing for 2024 is the development of use cases of case studies of how a I is working and will work. That's gonna be absolutely critical because the chip produces principally. NVIDIA are adding to capacity. They're selling chips like hot dinners. Uh, and they're selling processes like hot dinners. And the question is, you know, does demand peak? So in order to continue to stimulate demand, there has to be concrete identification of opportunities. And that's going to be the task for 2024 for example, in our case, we get we get projects at the moment, you know, half a million dollars here, a million dollars there. What we're looking for is the big technological transformation. Uh, projects. The the other thing I think about Davos. Is it underlines the two things that we see going on one is geographical fragmentation, Uh, the days of Ted Levitt and the Howard Business Review in 1983 of Globalisation, uh, and consumers consuming everything the same way that still holds, but in a very much more fragmented way because of the three geopolitical risk quite apart from climate change, North Korea and the other things that we have to deal with so that uncertainty. So one thing is focus on the growth areas. That's where the India story becomes so potent and powerful, so North and South America that block is going to become more and more important. I think it's fanciful to believe that America will become a traditional labour manufacturing economy again, with labour rates rising like the UAW agreement by what 25% over four years, it's unrealistic. You might build chip factories in Columbus, Ohio, between Brookfield and Intel. But But you know, if you want to deal with your supply chain, Apple and Tesla are go to Mexico. So Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay. We'll see how Malay does in Argentina that block very important Middle East huge vision. You see it here on the Promenade in Davos and not just Saudi UAE, Qatar. Huge vision. And these are visions that are not the usual nation brand. It's not just about the Olympics or the World Cup or Formula One or a combination of all three. It's about changing the way that that countries around the world globally think about Saudi. Think about the UAE. Think about Qatar. Uh, culturally, A final question and a focused question on India. Uh, has it been a mini India on the Promenade this year? And I think this is and why? Why the interest in India? I mean, I, I said. A great deal of interest in what I said. If you're looking, would you like to talk a little bit more about what people are saying? How you see the story? Modi has done a fantastic job. Uh, he's He's not just a great prime minister, but he's He understands brand, and he understands the importance of it. And he is the chief brand officer of of India and some some presidents and prime ministers don't think that communication, um, is that important? You know, in our own case, you know, Cameron and indeed the the joint government with the Liv Dems. Cameron and Clegg did understand It was interesting when Theresa May became prime minister. She moved the Great Britain campaign, which I still think is the best example of branding, you know, a template for all ministers to use. So you put it all together because the trouble with indications at government level is it becomes disintegrated. Each minister has a favourite agency relationship with, and they all go off in different directions. Cameron was originally APR guy, and, uh, I think he understood and still understands, as does Nick Clegg, who now working at at Meta uh, the answer, the importance of communication. And that's Central. When Theresa May came in, she moved it out of 10 Downing Street. And she didn't regard herself, I think, as being the chief brand officer, she didn't have time for that, And that's a big mistake. Modi understands that, uh, I think he'll get Re-elected. And I think, um, the reason why India is such a focus. I mean, I'm from the UK and we, as we were talking about in the in the in the preparation for this, you know, India is a bigger economy than the UK, which is distinctly uncomfortable for all US Britons to to swallow. Just like it's uncomfortable for the Americans to swallow that China might be bigger than the the US. So, um, no, it's growth, It's growth. And India, you've got great co sources of talent rather like Latin America, which gets underplayed. That's true great sources of tech talent, great sources of people. And I mentioned Harvard Business School. All the great professors and the dean himself took twice in a row. Where did they come from? They come from India. So I, I think, and the great entrepreneurs you know, the ambas It's Natal. I mean, it's it's extraordinary. So and those entrepreneurs, having built their businesses in India and now expanding globally around the world. And so Davos is a good vehicle for them. And you can see you know, I hate the phrase of Global North and global South because it's a mixture of the two. But you can see in this rebalancing of the world economy this different polar polarisation of the economy, not US, dominated. The Americans find that very difficult to come to terms with terms with, particularly the the centre of America. Not so much the East and West Coast and the Republicans. Um, you know, they the world is changing. And actually, Davos, to your point, reflects that. So where you see the investment being made and the money being spent, you know, you see it around the the Arab nations. You see it around India. You see nations that have aspirations and ambitions using it as an experiential vehicle to develop, um, their their brands. So it's all part of, uh, nation branding the button. Wonderful speaking. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
