In its first four years of existence, the Aspen Corporate Initiative group, which has met both physically and, during the pandemic, online, has focused on strategic issues of national and international relevance, while devoting particular attention to development and innovation in the business world.
Past speakers of distinction who have addressed the group include such leading lights as Charles A. Kupchan, Erik Jones, David Livingston, Allen Sinai, Jeffrey Sachs, Daniel Gros, Ignazio Angeloni, Richard Burt, Daniel Franklin, Gianni Riotta, Nando Pagnoncelli, Leonardo Becchetti, Domenico De Masi, Andrey V. Kortunov and Oksana Antonenko.
The group has begun to discuss corporate social responsibility and new socioeconomic models capable of combining competitiveness and solidarity, in an effort to overcome the increasing inequality that plagues the global economic system. Topics have included the pandemic and its repercussions on the global economy and on global value chains, the risk of a recession, reshoring options, the new organization of labor and remote working, and the growing importance of digitalization and infrastructure.
Of equally strategic importance are the group’s discussions on the environment and climate change, in an attempt to identify measures and tools that do not necessarily entail greater costs for the economic system. Cutting carbon emissions does not only benefit our health, it is also good for the economy; it can strengthen the strategic bond between a business and its local context.
The ACI program also includes a specific series devoted to exploring the political, social and economic situation in the United States, especially in conjunction with major elections in the country. In particular, the group has considered a number of technical issues closely related to the professional experience of certain of its members, with a debate on the role of social media as a tool for political and corporate marketing.
Participants also proved particularly interested in business finance and in the ecosystem of currencies. Slowly but surely, a “multipolarism” of currencies is emerging, which is certainly not an easy system to build and maintain, especially as it will also include the cryptocurrency phenomenon. We are currently moving steadily toward a multipolar system with one big dollar/euro area and another area that is represented by many of the world’s other currencies.