Harnessing potentials for sustainable business

Capital markets across the globe witnessed an unprecedented increase in the number of new investors and the infusion of a huge amount of capital via equity last year. However, 2022 came with a major geopolitical mishap in the form of the Russian invasion of Ukraine which sent the global markets in a shockwave and confusion, leading to high volatility in stocks, gold and metal prices.

Speaking at the ET Global Business Summit (GBS) 2022, various experts showed how businesses could harness the potential of sustainability and stay resilient in future.

Bill Ford, Chairman and CEO, General Atlantic, said with the post-Covid recovery and the supply-demand issue, there was already an expectation of systemic inflation. This, in return, was leading to an increase in the interest rates. It concerned the investors, and tech stocks saw significant corrections.


He further added that despite the market corrections and an increase in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve, the economies were recovering strongly from the pandemic. But now, the Ukraine-Russia war has again increased the risk of economies reaching a point of recession. With the invasion of Ukraine, Ford said, the world is set to see significant disruption in the supply chains. It is already evident following the imposition of sanctions on Russia.

In future, he added, the shift to the digital economy is unstoppable. “The rise of digital India is fully developing and is going to create lots of investment opportunities,” added Ford.

In the biotech industry, Paul Perreault, CEO & MD, CSL, said that innovation is important and, in fact, the best part of the industry. Failing to innovate consistently in biotech will plan your exit from the market.

Perreault believes that the pandemic gave an impetus to decentralised trials. These reduced the burden on trial participants with remote monitoring, video visits, and mobile nursing care. This also reduced the need to go to the research sites for all of the appointments and lab tests and ensured more efficient trials.

On the brighter side of the pandemic, many curious young minds started taking an interest in epidemiology or biostatistics. He further added that the pandemic clarified how imperative it is to invest in stem-cell research and science.

Further, Evan Spiegel, CEO, Snap Inc., said that platforms have a responsibility of self-regulating content and making sure that they do spread misinformation.

If the social media platforms develop a tendency to stick to a country's data privacy policy, they can provide a push towards the increase of digitisation, Spiegel added. Besides, it also creates a healthy environment for open dialogue in society.

Rajeev Misra, CEO, SoftBank Vision Fund, said that powerful investors no longer have greater access to the markets. The startups have shifted the centre of gravity. This has led to a more reasonable valuation of companies. “The market has not reached a state of equilibrium, where the private markets are still kind of valuing themselves at where the public market multiples are,” he added.

On building sustainable businesses, Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, said that partnerships would be the fuel in India's digitisation story. Indians are one of the largest digitally connected people on the planet, and it is leading the digital payment segment. Companies are moving from competition to collaboration to serve the consumers better.

Now, every business, be it healthcare, banking or education, is a digital business.

On the same lines, Lingraju Sawkar, President, Kyndryl India, said the digital transformation that has happened in the last two years has been more significant than what happened in the previous 100 years.

Earlier, the tech was built internationally and then introduced to India. But now, the tech is being built in India and then introduced to a global level. He added that the shift was significantly pushed by the ever-increasing SMEs and MSMEs in India.

Kyndryl is the presenting partner of the summit. It is co-powered by Capgemini. GfK is the intelligence partner, Samunnati and Paxfaul are associate partners, ET Edge Insights is the knowledge partner of the summit and is brought by ET Edge Unwired.

(Disclaimer: This article has been produced on behalf of TSSL by Mediawire team)