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letter from the directors dear readers the sabf is a life changing experience so say many former participants this following magazine has the difficult task of conveying an experience of such importance what will you find as you begin to read this magazine we hope you can understand who are the main actors that make the sabf possible and what makes it so special in our role as the organizing team managers we have to say that even we are surprised to see year after year how all the actors involved participants speakers sponsors and the organizing team can generate a such a great synergy this effect we are talking about corresponds to spending 3 days in a framework of genuine exchange of views respecting differences learning from the people at our sides and thus obtaining an authentic picture of what the world would be like if we all lived under those principles of respect after having lived this experience the effect is so positive at the end of the conference days that we feel it is our duty to try to reproduce these values daily and acting as catalysts in our respective areas as members of the organizing team this year has been a great effort along the same all kinds of challenges presented to us raise funds for the conference spread the sabf in universities around the world and contact speakers among others all this could be achieved while attending college and continuing with our personal lives and we believe it was possible because we believe in this project and its purpose index page 2 3 4 content index letter what is the sabf experiences at sabf 6 9 friday student workshops 10 12 sabf in numbers workshops in offices 13 14 16 workshop session roundtables sunday board of trustees the sabf along the year sabf in pictures 20 11 directors matÍas spanier nicol Ás loreti 17 18 19 2 south american business forum

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the south american business forum is a nonprofit organization created by students from the instituto tecnologico de buenos aires it aims about sabf to strengthen the exchange between current and future leaders in this way it seeks to contribute to sustainable development in south america with the generation of leaders this is to train tomorrow s leaders through dialogue with the leaders of today showing responsibility with students to improve their situation and the possibility of start doing it today what do we do the main event of sabf is a yearly international conference it consists of a meeting between two groups of people 100 college students from around the world from the most diverse backgrounds together with 40 leaders from the business political intellectual and social domains they meet in buenos aires for 3 days at a conference to discuss various aspects of a particular topic of interest for the present and future of south america and the world on the other hand during the year we organize different activities such as talks which are open and free to all students who are we the organizing team of the sabf is entirely composed by volunteer students from the instituto tecnológico de buenos aires itba who devote their extracurricular time to create a forum of excellence to achieve this it is necessary to obtain funds and resources contact speakers outline the agenda and spread the forum in universities and media press these are some of the various tasks performed by the members of the organizing team today after 7 years of existence no founder is within the organizing team there are two important challenges to achieve the longterm continuity of the forum on one side to transmit from generation to generation the importance of the sabf in the development of the region and secondly to ensure that the organization can continue to evolve independently of the people that conform it how to participate the participant students are selected through an essay that develops on the central subject to be discussed at the conference and have all their expenses covered by the organization since arriving in buenos aires including accommodation transport and meals on the other hand the current leaders are chosen based on lifetime achievement knowledge on the subject to discuss and shared values with the sabf south american business forum 3

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experiences at sabf we invite you to learn how participant from three different nationalities lived the sabf 2011 louyichong he hong kong as a global conference the sabf already is incredible in its workshops speakers and the network it represents regarding the organizing team it did a fabulous job whenever i had a problem i could consult them with no hesitation always so thoughtful it is an unforgettable experience to meet people from the elite worldwide and share ideas together who would imagine a facebook group so strong even after the conference that is the sabf salwa jabrane marruecos the sabf is an enriching and stimulating experience the organization was impeccable and i was very impressed by the level of professionalism and rigor of the team members this forum is the result of years of experience it allowed me to explore my career and set goals but what was most important is that i could open my eyes and see incredible phenomenas around me outside of my studies tests and grades where my problems seem insignificant and paradoxically making me stronger and conscious i m young but i am able to make decisions to influence and improve this world brenda dvoskin argentina participating in the sabf was the difference between dreaming and start to build with a clear idea of how exciting must be our future the organizers of the sabf have created an unique space in argentina where thoughts come from around the world into new horizons the pillars of the organization of the event are also the forum axes excellence ethics and commitment the sabf encourages us to take the path marked with the effort and desire la palabra original era ganas that the organizers show every year 4 south american business forum

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experiences at sabf speakers bernardo kosacoff academic director of centro empresa competitividad y desarrollo cecyd itba-udesa i had the privilege of being invited to the seventh edition of sabf to the round table sessions it was a very stimulating experience shared with about ten students from different nationalities and courses of studies after discussing some experiences of my professional performance there was a very fruitful exchange about the characteristics of the economic and social development of latin america the enthusiasm spontaneity commitment to progress and the equality between the participants was very encouraging on a complementary level i really enjoyed the encounter before and after the workshop the level of efficiency and hospitality of the organizers is exemplary with great care and attention to the guests which is great i found myself surrounded by 100 students of an excellent academic education nice restless with an extraordinary life force to find their way in life and in their career spreading joy solidarity and commitment to building a better world alex bÄcker qless founder and ceo my experience as a sabf speaker was great the organisers were very enthusiastic the participants from around the world even very exotic countries had very interesting ideas ideas allowing discussions full of content particularly i d like to point out the debate generated about freedom comparing the deprivation in china against that of the usa sabf is a great conference not only does it gather great speakers such as santiago bilinkis among others but it also provides the chance to visit companies and generate a casual dialogue with their directors a very recommendable experience south american business forum 5

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the future of the future santiago bilinkis s antiago bilinkis was in charge of introducing the main topic first he shared his experience at singularity university and raised questions that remained present all through the forum his talk was divided into three parts in the first one which he named the past of the future he highlighted how the future has always let us down if by the year 2000 we expected to travel by space ships and to attend intergalactic conferences imagine the disappointment of being in 2011 without having solved the basic problems related to everyday life food transport and health he stated that while our form of life hasn t changed in its essence since the beginning of civilization the acceleration of development strongly boosted by the progress in computer science allows now to question everything that we have been taking for granted and to make real the future we ve imagined the computing world is governed by different laws than we are used to and this is what makes changes so different to predict in the second part named the present of the future bilinkis showed a glimpse of the technologies that today are revolutionizing almost every aspect of human life finally and as a conclusion with the title the future of the future he highlighted the need of understanding that the changes that will come to happen during the following years are impossible to stop we live in a world with huge inequalities and these technologies hold the key to either solve them or make them worse the changes that will come to happen during the following years are impossible to stop great people s decisions claudio fernÁndez arÁoz t he first plenary talk of sabf 2011 was given claudio fernandez aráoz senior advisor at egon zehnder international his objective was to define the characteristics and challenges brought by having to choose employees in the dynamic world of today his presentation was focused on three fundamental aspects why is it so important to choose the best why is it so hard to do and how can you cope with this sort of decision it was possible to observe that successful cases at work are consistent with a person with high levels of ei and experience as well as analytical skills exponential times these decisions turn more complex every time and to make them successfully it s necessary to have discipline studies and to know how to listen even though experience and the intellectual coefficient are important aspects when choosing a candidate to be part of an organisation during the last few years the concept of emotional intelligence ei has taken vital importance it was possible to observe that successful cases at work are consistent with a person with high levels of ei and experience as well as analytical skills as a conclusion he encouraged the public to develop emotionally to excel in a competitive world he pointed out that it is of utmost importance to hire the best talents to make a company triumph in 6 south american business forum

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economic development in a dynamic world sajeev babu y reinaldo salgado t his panel was led by sajeev babu and reinaldo salgado and moderated by enrique szewach president of evaluadora latinoamericana s.a the three of them debated about the role of the bric in the current dynamic economy enrique szewach said that since the crisis of 2008 the bric has transformed into the locomotive of world s growth then reinaldo salgado minister couselor of the embassy of brazil in economic affairs said that those countries which belong to bric have experienced growth rates of almost 10 annually and said that in his country this has worked to increase social inclusion rates for his part sajeev babu counselor of the embassy of india in argen tina shared india s characteristics with the audience emphasizing diversity he also focused on internal development increasing demand for the new middle class and the challenges they face when bringing technologies to the poorest and rural sectors due to lack of infrastructure tomorrow s education manuel Álvarez trongÉ m anuel Álvarez trongé director of proyecto educar 2050 introduced us to the famous discussion of what is it that we understand by education inviting us to think it over education is conviction requires passion desire to help perseverance effort and humility generating human perfection he is sure that in order to build a better society we need to start on reality to focus and tackle the problems facing us today efficiently Álvarez trongé showed testimonials and case studies where proyecto educar 2050 has been working to address the huge gap between social classes and the uneven distribution of resources as a conclusion the speaker invited us to commit and to submit innovative proposals actively participating as young people we must convince ourselves that the context in wich we are born is no longer a determining factor for a better future it is time we demand and claim a good education education is conviction requires passion desire to help perseverance effort and humility generating human perfection south american business forum 7

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technology and exponential times fernando maristany c ontinuing with this edition s main topic in friday s fourth session maristany stated that the questions that determine our generation are how will the future be is there a way to predict it maristany thinks the solution is to imagine it and create it creative thoughts must be above all other things even though looking at the past is a useful tool it is not enough we have to overcome our mental barriers accept challenges face them and let some room to innovation in this way he presented us with different examples where one s creativity generated innovative ideas in other people s minds which finally led to the current technological rush we are living besides maristany affirmed that owadays we are drowning in information internet makes the amount of data infinite but not always trustworthy our future should be to edit it and keep the best parts of it to obtain useful and valuable information finally he concluded his lecture with a phrase which remained in our minds being the smartest or the strongest is not what matters most but being the one who best adapts to changes if one has to change one must realize it in time we have to overcome our mental barriers accept challenges face them and let some room to innovation we have to overcome our mental barriers accept challenges face them and let some room to innovation conclusions diego luzuriaga t o conclude the first day of the conference diego luzuriaga faced the difficult task of developing conclusions based on the lectures which took place during the whole day he started making a summary of the main ideas mentioned by the different speakers then he decided to talk about other current phenomena which grow exponentially and that had not been mentioned during the day crime predation contamination poverty he stated that the accelerated growth is usually based on nonsustainable production even if we can see good short term benefits 8 a lot of projects have terrible long term consequences finally he referred to one of the concepts that came up during the day belonging to the top ten percent he asked the students who of them were really interested in belonging to that ten percent this was how the debate started and the conclusion was that the important thing was to find our own singularity an objective which is more honest to ourselves than the incessant pursuit of belonging to the elite the important thing is to find our own singularity an objective which is more honest to ourselves than the incessant pursuit of belonging to the elite south american business forum

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student workshops mauricio barrera barragÁn bolivia clara antonio argentina militza giulliana johnson castaÑeda peru universidad catÓlica boliviana san pablo universidad nacional de rosario universidad inca garcilaso de la vega mauricio talked about creative economies and their impact related to regional development he affirmed that creativity as a generator of new ideas could be the key to crate a positive impact on economies which without this would be held still the whole debate was related to what we understand for creative economy or creative industry and what would be the best way to promote its development through public and private initiatives during her lecture clara spoke about how our lives have changed since the arrival of internet and new technologies she emphasized on the public side of information and how this would lead to a more participative democracy on another aspect she also talked about the negative side of technology stating that the data on the internet have a really blurry barrier between what s public and what s private and rules which are not very clear inspired by radical ideas from ken robinson militza started her workshop with the quote what we need is not an evolution but a revolution in education she discussed about the basis of education stating that they were mistaken and concluding that there is no point in improving standards when the foundations are wrong she emphasized the importance of making educational services more affordable to be able to reach a wider public leandro pisaroni gerbaldo argentina temitope isedowo obafemi awolowo university nigeria juan pablo nieto stabile uruguay universidad tecnolÓgica nacional cba universidad catÓlica del uruguay education should boost talent leandro stated that the current educational system is the main cause of shortage in trained human resources because it is based on the postulate that there is only one kind of intelligence therefore covering student s natural talents he proposed to reformulate the concept of intelligence turning it into a wider one promoting creativity and student motivation and revitalizing the role of teachers teachers shouldn t be a transmitter of information teachers should fill students minds with questions temitope used exponential growth and its requirements to show the difference that is generated between rural and urban areas he discussed in detail the factors which don t allow rural areas to keep up with development among these factors he mentioned the increasing demand of a suitable educational and health system there is a huge variety of solutions and ways to approach them temitope concluded juan pablo stated that in exponential times the evolution of web 2.0 creates new opportunities which allow to seize the synergy among different groups of work he referred to technology as a way of democratization a tool to achieve freedom he considers that having internet access should be a right because it is the only means which allows plurality of sources the web is social and according to juan pablo collective intelligence implies that teams are more than the individuals south american business forum 9

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sabf 7 years in numbers 10 south american business forum

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60 represented countries 223 speakers 26 670 nonprofit organizations participants 10423 registered 94 supporters south american business forum 11

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workshops in offices guibert englebienne globant co-founder y cto globant a company that develops software for other big companies shared its vision of innovation with us stressing the need to establish relationships in the long term with the consumers in order to keep this kind of innovative processes constant the methodology to undertake this consists in proposing ideas and new products to consumers in order for them to determine the necessary modifications for it to satisfy the needs vÍctor valle google alejandro bottan ge executive and regional president for argentina chile paraguay and uruguay general electric chief financial officer for the spanish-speaking markets in latin america google alex bottan focused in the power of innovation he remarked that this is one of the fundamental attitudes that ge adopts and described how companies push this forward in latin america by investing in infrastructure and building a new business culture in addition he told us that ge boosts imagination at work because business works under the incentives that the environment offers jorge goulu ibm president ceo ibm argentina in the google offices victor valle talked about the values and ethics in the companies he started with the definition of absolute and relative values in order to later show the similarities and differences between business ethics and general ethics that rule relationships among people lastly he initiated a group activity with the objective of discovering the activities that google considers of paramount importance related to its values system jorge goulu based his workshop on how ibm managed to remain a leader among innovative companies around the world for many years he told us the strategy used by the company and how it went from being a commodities company to a company dedicated to research he stressed out the necessity to invest big amounts of money in the research development area in order to lead the future 12 south american business forum

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workshop session juan carlos fernÁndez impsa fin goulding sabre alex bÄcker qless juan carlos fernandez based his workshop on impsa s expansion and commented about the company policy he emphasized the fact that in a situation of openess to other countries the company must consider the integration of national human resources this enables the insertion of knowledge of the local culture as well as the commercial techniques of that country helping the development of the society involved thanks to this policy his company is currently positioned in more than 25 countries fin goulding vice-president of sabre holdings in buenos aires focused on the fact that nowadays changes are fast-occurring from the point of view of the company it s necessary for its employees to react in an efficent way to them during his workshop fin made participants reflect upon what skills must leaders develop to handle a working group under these conditions alex bäcker founder and ceo of qless explained the 10 steps that need to be followed to initiate a technological start-up based on his experience he affirmed that identifying the problem and finding a solution are the starting points of the whole project and he also emphasized the importance of patenting the product other important actions are recruiting a team and spreading the project between people that could be interested finally he proposed working with people you know and trust as he considers it essential for success david de ugarte cooperativa de las indias Álvaro teijeiro sÓnico marÍa del pilar ferro care david s workshop was based in the relation between communication and globalization and how both concepts affect the economy and society he emphasized that we live in a world with distributed networks where there is no need for the existence of an intermediary finally he pointed out that globalization is an opportunity to generate new businesses because nowadays the initial capital can be replaced by knowledge and creative ideas change is what most impacts our lives in his workshop alvaro teijeiro showed how important change is and its increasing speed in the emergence of new business opportunities he emphasized the role of internet in our daily lives and the importance of empirical analysis instead of only basing business decision-making on a theoretical study finally alvaro outlined the multiplying factor of the implementation and proper execution of an idea however small it may be you will achieve more if you start now pilar compartió con los participantes su experiencia liderando care una ong dedicada a adaptar tecnologías informáticas para personas con discapacidad care surgió conformado por un grupo de profesionales con amplia experiencia en la capacitación de personas con discapacidad con un objetivo claro la sociedad de la información debe ser accesible e inclusiva para todos durante el taller se expusieron historias de vidas y se discutieron los desafíos y oportunidades que brindan en este campo las nuevas tecnologías south american business forum 13

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roundtables marcos golfari regional director ogilvy love what you do my job is only to generate ideas mix two and generate a third one what happens if you have an elephant and a hippopotamus you get a vacuum cleaner guillermo laborato general manager latin america global strategic planning director packaging and converting business dow you have to adapt to the company it will not adapt to you entrepreneurs start small but think big felix peÑa specialist in international economic relationships and economic integration director of the institute of trade standard bank foundation the shortcomings today both of public and private universities is communication between them and this is what increases the dissociation and reduces the integration of society you don t have to handle diversity you have to appreciate it and enjoy it federico imposti huerta country manager amadeus argentina i think that the multicultural point of view is the key i had a lot of luck the luck factor has always been there tulio calderÓn director at aerospace projects invap know your people the only way to make things is with a team people are migrating their solutions someone else has already solved your problem in another part of the world 14 south american business forum

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krishna sundaresan manager irevna you are intelligent you are qualified you know how to communicate with people you will not have problems to succeed choose your team not your business plan ernesto taboada executive director argentine-china chamber of commerce the lack of consensus always carries people to take bad decisions the cultural barrier is the biggest obstacle in the relationship with china faustino arias general manager calsa paradigms are the worst obstacles for humanity we will be as big as our dreams bernardo kosakoff academic director of business competitiveness and development center itba udesa i am not an academic despite being a professor and giving lots of conferences my ambition is not publishing in a top five i am interested in enabling future societies to live in a better way how about teaching jobs in argentina few people are trained for even basic skills javier braun general director for the south cone region avaya the important thing is to meet the magic equation of doing what you like enjoy doing it and getting paid for it only after five years in a company can you start adding value as an employee south american business forum 15

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