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Bain & Company Worldwide Managing Partner Manny Maceda discusses how themes associated with Bain's work on the Firm of the Future are relevant to discussions among business and policy leaders at Davos, including the importance of ecosystems and flexible capital models.
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Read the transcript below.
MANNY MACEDA: The Firm of the Future has been reinforced in many of the things I see [at Davos]. And let me call out at least two aspects of Firm of the Future. One is the ecosystem part.
In a conference like the World Economic Forum, you actually see the ecosystems getting built. You see the meetings. Traditionally, you will meet with your customer. Occasionally, you'll check in with your competitor. But the peer-to-peer network building of different companies in your supply chain and your partnerships with all the new technologies they're enabling. That's so consistent with what we've seen in Firm of the Future.
Second theme I would pick up in Firm of the Future is flexible capital models. And seeing the convergence of private investors, public investors, government investors, all sorting out: what is the best capital structure for this company at this stage in its lifecycle? That's very much a Firm of the Future issue.
And the rest are consistent. Engine 2, Engine 3 discussions are going on. I'd probably highlight a third [theme], which continues to be, being mission-centric, to really get the value beyond pure economics in order to not just do the right thing, but to mobilize the talent pool of the world.
Frankly it's potentially a solve to some of the problems that we're seeing in the world around inequality and the impact of globalization on different parts of the population. And so having that be a consistent theme, it's coming out loud and clear in this conference. And frankly, it's the right thing for the world to do.
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