Azevêdo: Las estadísticas comerciales indican que la desaceleración de la economía mundial afecta más a los países menos adelantados

En 2012 y 2013, los países menos adelantados crecieron por debajo del promedio registrado en años anteriores, pero podrían beneficiarse de un repunte de la economía, puesto que gran parte de sus exportaciones se destinan a Europa, que se está recuperando, dijo el Director General, Roberto Azevêdo, en una conferencia de prensa sobre las estadísticas comerciales más recientes, celebrada el 14 de abril de 2014. El Director General dijo lo siguiente:

Thank you everyone for coming. You've all seen the press release, so I'll go through a few of the headlines.

Clearly it has been a tough few years for global trade growth.

In 2009, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, trade suffered its largest decline on record — down 12% in volume terms, and 23% in dollar terms, compared to the previous year.

Since then we haven't seen any more declines — and that's good news — but, other than the partial rebound in 2010, growth has remained a long way below the historical average.

Most family-owned businesses—approximately 70%—last just one generation. Because an estimated 80% of businesses across the globe are family-owned, the low survival rate has alarming consequences. Consider this: In the United States alone, family-owned businesses (FOBs) are responsible for 60% of total US employment and generate 78% of all new jobs. Further, some of the world’s biggest companies are family-owned—News Corp, Samsung, Tata Group, and Walmart to name but a few—and more than a third of Fortune 500 companies are family-owned.

Our research on boards of directors and corporate governance has shed new light on many board practices and reveals the need for improvement in several areas including skills and selection,succession planning, and diversity. Given the vast impact of FOBs on every economy in the world, we were keen to learn if there were differences between the boards and governance practices of family and non-family owned companies.

In 2012, we (in partnership with WomenCorporateDirectors and Heidrick & Struggles) surveyed more than 1,000 corporate directors across the globe and broke out the FOB boards from the non-FOB boards. The results were striking: There was not one meaningful measure—from missing skill sets to the effectiveness of succession practices to creating more diverse boards and workplaces—on which FOB boards outperformed non-FOB boards.

It was Friday afternoon in Paris and I had spent the morning teaching a group of Chinese CEOs how to work effectively with Europeans. I asked the class: “What steps should the team leader in this case study take to manage different attitudes towards confrontation on the team?”

Lilly Li, a bird-like woman with a pleasant smile, who had been running operations in Hungary for two years, raised her hand: “Trust has been a big challenge for us, as Hungarians do not take the same time to build personal relationships as we do in China.”

Now I was a little confused, because the question I’d asked was about confrontation, not trust. Had she misunderstood me? I pushed the earpiece closer to my ear to make sure I was hearing the translator correctly. Lilly Li continued to talk for several minutes about trust, hierarchy, and her experiences in Hungary. The Chinese participants listened carefully.

After several long minutes of interesting comments that had — from my perspective — absolutely zero to do with the question I’d asked, Lilly came to the point: “If the team leader had spent more time helping the team build relationships outside of the meeting, they would have been much more comfortable dealing with debate and direct confrontation.”