European economic growth fails to impress. Since the eighties, it is on a divergent path from the United States, which at present enjoys (±) 40% GDP greater per capita, 25% greater productivity per employee, and 20% greater productivity per hour. Indeed, while the negative or weak rates of growth in the past years link bank to the financial crisis, and the forces that ushered Western economies into the crisis, the underlying oomph in Europe’s economy has been weak for a longer time. The rate of productivity growth has been poor and looks likely to remains so. What explains Europe’s economic doldrums – and what can be done to put Europe on a path of higher economic growth?

Keynote talk by Professor Jorge Sá (MBA Drucker School, PhD Columbia University) teaches at Swiss Business School in Zurich and AESE, associated with IESE in Barcelona. He was awarded the Jean Monnet Chair (by the Jean Monnet Foundation Brussels), is one of the world’s authorities on Peter Drucker and his books have been published in eleven languages. Comments by Erik van der Marel, Senior Economist at ECIPE