Jean-Michel Paul, author of The Economics of Discontent: From Failing Elites to The Rise of Populism will deliver the guest address at the 13th annual edition of BusinessDay’s CEO Forum, scheduled to be held on September 30, 2021, in Lagos.
He is the founder and chief executive of Acheron Capital, a London-based hedge fund, and faculty member at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, Belgium.
His presentation will set the macro context of this year’s theme “Reboot: Regaining Strategic Flexibility in the Age of Uncertainty.”
Paul’s main thesis is that the social contract that has underpinned growth and political stability in the western world since World War II has broken down.
Housing, health care, and higher education have become unaffordable to a majority of people, while the burden of unregulated monopolies, globalization, and uncontrolled immigration has fallen disproportionately on the lower and middle classes.
“Populist insurgents are largely correct about what has gone wrong, but, dangerously, know far less about how to make it right,” he remarked. To remedy the situation, he cautions that this is a time to reflect on what policies would restore needed balance and a reinvigorated social contract.
He connects the dots to show how countries that just a decade ago were paragons of stability have turned into cauldrons of stewing discontent.
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The outbreak of COVID exposed the inadequacies of quantitative easing and live social divisions.
Despite the trillions of dollars pumped to increase financial system liquidity, the real economy has stubbornly refused to be reflated.
Drawing from the experience in the West, his analysis would be directly relevant to CEOs, boards, economists, elected representatives, and policy-makers for interpreting recent unrests like the Zuma riots in South Africa, EndSars, secessionist agitations, and class-driven social tensions in Nigeria.
“For the time to act is short. Discontent is reaching unsustainable levels. Riots are becoming commonplace. Valuation bubbles from exponential money printing are about to explode, and could easily trigger a run-on fiat currency — just look at the growing popularity of crypto- alternatives,” Paul writes.
BusinessDay’s annual CEO Forum is a must-attend event for decision-makers in Nigeria’s private sector to dissect key trends, best practices, and successful business models. The CEO Forum, since 2009, provides a unique platform for debate around the prevailing challenges they confront in running their organisations.
Paul will be joined by Michael Raynor, author of management bestsellers, including The Strategy Paradox: Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure (And What to do About It); The Innovator’s Manifesto: Deliberate Disruption for Transformational Growth; and The Three Rules: How Exceptional Companies Think.
Other speakers confirmed for this year’s event include Dr. Adun Okupe, Lecturer, Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University; Dr. Akintoye Akindele, Chairman/ CEO, Platform Capital Group; Bolanle Asumah, Director of People, Africa, McKinsey & Company; Chidi Okoro, Founder, Drugs and Medicaments Nig.; Elohor Aiboni, MD, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Ltd (SNEPCo); Dr. Ije Jidenma, Managing Partner, IRC Global Executive Search Partners, Nigeria; Ireti Samuel-Ogbu, CEO & Citi Country Officer for Nigeria & Ghana; Karl Toriola, CEO, MTN Nigeria; Kunle Oyelana, Managing Director, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria (GSK); Mustapha Njie, Group Managing Director, TAF Africa Global; Oluwole Oshin, Group Managing Director, Custodian Investment Plc.; Patrick McMichael, Group Managing Director, Eat‘N’Go; Peju Adebajo, Advisory Board Member, Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University; Rolake Rosiji, CEO, Jobberman Nigeria; Sonnie Ayere, Group Managing Director/CEO at DLM Capital Group; and Steve Osho, Co-Managing Partner, Comercio Partners & CEO, Comercio Partners Capital.
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