The third annual Global Competitiveness Forum (GCF) followed from and improved upon the first and second Forums, and convened as the global economy appeared to veer off a precipice in January 2009.

The conference’s theme, Responsible Competitiveness, provided in many ways a summary of and a productive approach to the challenges ahead. How could irresponsible management have led world markets - in credit, in housing, in energy, in crops - so badly astray, and how can responsibility be restored? How can governments and the private sector tackle multi-faceted economic problems without stalling the drive for competitiveness and shared prosperity?

At a time when financial distress has erased trillions of dollars in asset value worldwide, the Global Competitiveness Forum’s first speech by Carlos Ghosn (pictured on the right), Nissan’s President and CEO, declared: “value creation is what responsible competitiveness is all about.” For nations as for enterprises, competitiveness is about delivering world-class value to customers, to employees, and to investors. Yet as the economic crisis unfolding in early 2009 made clear, to be meaningful, competition must proceed on responsible footing. In areas ranging from carbon to credit, GCF panelists agreed that apparently profitable global markets have often destroyed rather than created value, and explored ways of restoring their contribution to shared prosperity.

To answer these questions, the world’s premier gathering on competitiveness challenges was joined by eminent leaders, executives, intellectuals and Olympic athletes with visionary perspectives on how to link the competitiveness agenda with a far-reaching concern for social responsibility. The insights that emerged were too powerful, and proceedings of the 2009 GCF informed an open letter to the leaders of the G20 member nations calling for an aggressive, coordinated response to the economic downturn.