IMA Insights

After decades of being burdened with leftist Peronists, Argentina finally elected Javier Milei a self-described libertarian. Mr Milei had campaigned on a promise of small government and a passionate commitment to fixing Argentina’s crumbling economy.  

An economic paradox of sorts, in the first few decades of the 21st century, Argentina was one of the world’s richest countries. It is now an economic disaster. Burdened with unsustainable debt and very high inflation, Argentina has consistently defaulted on its commitment to international creditors. Mr Milei brings a fresh promise to fix its economic architecture. This podcast explains.

Simon Kuznets, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, once remarked that there are four types of countries – advanced economies, emerging markets, Argentina and Japan. Japan, which has over the years and despite a series of policy efforts, remained plagued with price deflation and feeble growth. 

But a new worry that it is now struggling with is the massive debt burden of its government. With rising interest rates, this may become unsustainable. Also burdened with a declining workforce and possibly a shrinking economy, Japan will tragically lose its influence in Asia. That cannot be construed as good news. This podcast explains

At a recent, half-day India CHRO Forum meeting in Bangalore, IMA India had sessions on building a high-performance culture, and on identifying and managing unconscious bias - which can be a serious impediment in any business.

Fidelity National Financial (FNF) India stands out within India’s fast-growing Global Capability Centre (GCC) space. It is one of the rare GCCs to have an independent P&L mandate – one that is supported by a high-performance culture that remains solidly employee-centric. This unique mix has allowed FNF to move steadily up the ranks on the Great Places to Work (GPTW) list. What does it take to build and sustain such a culture? How did HR and the CEO’s office work together to enable it? George Inasu, FNF India’s Managing Director and Country Head, answered these questions while tracing FNF’s unusual story. 

Unconscious biases are ingrained prejudices or attitudes that subtly influence a person’s perceptions, decisions and actions. Smita Tharoor, motivational keynote speaker and thought leader on the unconscious bias, and the founder of Tharoor Associates; and Sriram S., award winning Happiness@Work, author of ‘Happiness Habits’, certified life wisdom and unconscious bias coach and a featured speaker at TEDx, explored unconscious bias in daily life and workplaces and delved into manifestations and impacts in gender differences. They further uncovered its effects in work settings and discussed constructive management strategies to address and mitigate such biases effectively.
This podcast summarises these discussions.

With 2024 around the corner, it is a good time to take stock of the prospects for global – and Asian – growth. China is visibly slowing, part of the eurozone are in recession and America may not be able to hold off a downturn for much longer. Added to this mix, geopolitical risks have spiked and elections are due in India, the US and probably the UK. 
At a recent joint online session of the India CEO and CFO Forums session, Richard Martin, Founder and Managing Director of IMA Asia, assessed the risks and opportunities that lie ahead and offered unique insights from an East-Asian vantage point.  This podcast offers a brief summary of the session 

Over the coming decade, some countries will do a lot better than others. India, for instance, is likely to emerge as the world’s fastest growing large economy just as China’s growth begins to moderate. Businesses will need to realign their strategies under these changing market conditions to seek out opportunities and refigure their supply chains. 
The critical question for strategists is the management of risk - is the greater risk the investment committed to tap future opportunities going sour (should they fail to materialise) or is it the failure to tap it and lose both market share or an opportunity?

The rise and fall of countries in the global pecking order, is based on their ability to efficiently use capital and other resources. Clearly, it helps to avoid bad politics. 

Over the course of the last five decades, the global economic map has transformed radically. In the coming decade, there will again be a new set of winners and losers. This paper is the first in a two part series that looks at historical changes and our assessment of the future. It is based, largely, on the commentary by Richard Martin, Managing Director of IMA Asia, our sister company, at a joint session of the CEO and CFO Forums.

Private equity investor, philanthropist and educator – Ashish Dhawan has worn many hats over the course of his career. He currently runs The Convergence Foundation (TCF), which he set up a few years ago to help drive change at a public-policy level. 

At a recent online session of the India CEO and CHRO Forums, he shared insights, drawing on his long and varied career, on how business, education and the not-for-profit sectors intersect in India. He also discussed how he used his learnings from the private sector to help build one of India’s leading educational institutions, Ashoka University, and more recently, to establish TCF. 

This podcast  summarises these discussions 

India is in the midst of transformative change, economically, geopolitically and in terms of public policy. Savings are moving from fixed assets (real estate, gold) to financial ones. Equally, capital markets are fast replacing banks as a source of growth funding. 

During IMA India's  espresso session last week, we shared the findings of the 2023 Personal Finance and Wealth Management Survey. With about 360 respondents, the data generated was robust both in terms of our ability to undertake correlations and generate meaningful insights for practical use. 

The report will be shared over the coming days. During the session, participants raised questions in relation to personal finance and this podcast will provide a perspective on some of these. 

In a digital world, transfer pricing (TP) dynamics are constantly being disrupted and CFOs must grapple with ever-greater complexity on this front. At a recent India CFO Forum session in Delhi, Vijay Iyer, Partner and National Leader, Transfer Pricing at EY India, shared insights on how companies are dealing with TP disputes and the role of advanced pricing agreements (APAs) in that. He also shared his views on recent developments in the area of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), especially its 2.0 version. 

This podcast offers a brief summary of the session along with a fuller commentary on the subject.