Organised by the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie under the banner Time to Act, the event took place on May 5th, and had the merit of raising a certain number of existential issues, asking relevant questions and jolting the participants out of their daily routine, by inviting them to take a step back in order to better evaluate the future of their brands. Moderator André Schneider, ex-director of the WEF, described the rules of play as follows: "This forum needs to define what the challenges are and how to deal with them". It was up to participants to provide their own answers or to think about the hypotheses of the various stakeholders. Where China is concerned, for example, who should one believe between the highly rational Martin Wolf (chief economic correspondent for the FT) and the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, He Yafei, with his more canned approach ? Based on facts and figures, the former explained that with a GDP that is 50 per cent dependent on the country's investments and seven per cent growth that is inadequate in the medium term, China has no choice but to make an enormous adjustment. Using completely different figures, namely, that every year, 13 million Chinese leave rural areas for the cities, that life expectancy has increased from 37 years old in 1949 to 73 today, and that they earn on average 18 times less than the Swiss, the second argued that the Chinese are becoming aware that quality of growth is more important than GDP growth. Growth, therefore, is unavoidable. Pointing out that "not everyone can increase their exports at the same time, despite this being what everyone would like to do", Martin Wolf put his finger on a sore point - namely that the price of raw materials is already exploding, but in 2030, non-OECD countries requirements, today equivalent to those of OECD countries, will have doubled. Indian actress, Shabana Azmi, who is involved in a number of socio-economic projects, emphasized that half of India's population is under the age of 25, and that luxury brands with a long term view of the market need to target the gigantic middle class that is looming, and support social development. Even French philosopher, Luc Ferry, ex-Minister of National Education and Research, predicted that the 2020s will be dogged by a shortage of non-renewable raw materials.

Highlighted by this brilliant speaker's verve, culture and ethics are both featured as remedies to deal with the threats of the 21st century. Our contemporaries are no longer guided by a great final cause, but by the need to innovate, and nothing puts the brakes on impulse buying as much as moral values. Actually, Tom Savigar (Director of Strategy at the London Future Laboratory) comments "Churches have been replaced by Apple Stores, with an apple rather than a cross above our heads". "Contemporary art is not beautiful but innovative", pointed out Luc Ferry, describing the 20th century as the greatest period of deconstruction of traditional values of all humankind. According to Laurent Haug (CEO of Lift Conference), "Innovation, which is often incremental, is frequently in addition to, rather than in replacement of". From this perspective, social networks represent an epiphenomenon, but "how does one survive them ?" In his opinion, family businesses which tend to have more deeply encrusted values, will be more serene and respond better to innovation. Historian and design critic, Alba Cappellieri, defined her foundations such as the procedure of assembling ideas and linking elements that are known but regarded as unrelated to each other. In short, a thorough questioning of each one appears inevitable: "only entrepreneurs have the slightest chance of success" announced State Councillor, François Longchamp, while Fabienne Lupo (President of the FHH) declared, "the colours of culture, and not only those of the economy, must be diffused all over the world". Nobody will forget Luc Ferry's final word, "areas of stiffness tend to shift with age".

For a complete acccount of the proceedings please visit : www.hautehorlogerie.org