During TNT Symposium on November 29th, Sasha Baillie, CEO of Luxinnovation, Jerry Grbic, CEO of ABBL, Vincent Arnal, CIO of LALUX, and Olivier Beaujean, CIO of Cargolux ran a round table. They shared 4 key dimensions to answer the issue: ‘How to compete successfully in the radically human future?’

Sasha Baillie was the first expert who tackled the topic, expressing her thoughts about the challenge of the lack of talents countries are facing, and how Luxembourg deals with competition for talents.

Competition for talents in Luxembourg: advantages and weaknesses

"Luxembourg is a showcase of multinational and multicultural talent pool":  Sasha Baillie highlighted this remarkable phenomenon, seen nowhere else in Europe. "It’s a real asset we need to fully grasp and nurture! It’s our strength!"

But according to the expert, Luxembourg also has a weakness: "The country faces a particular challenge after the covid crisis. Remote working has become a new way of working that gives talents a wider choice of how and where to work. But, there are limits to the work framework a Luxembourgish company can offer to the talents it wishes to attract. Fiscal constraints prevent non-resident employees of Luxembourg companies to work from their home outside the country more than a given number of days. This is a strategic question for the country that we need to be fully aware of and we have to put our minds together to find a solution that is beneficial to the country in the long term."

A significant human dimension

"Technology provides tremendous new opportunities for companies and the economy to thrive. As innovation agency, promoting this uptake and development of such technologies is the core of our mission.", the CEO started to explain.

Concerning Luxembourg, Sasha Baillie believes the country has managed to attract incredible talents in the area of technology and data science, saying that: "Consistent investments in research facilities in Luxembourg by successive governments over the last 20 years are bearing fruit. Just look at the University’s multidisciplinary centre for security, reliability and trust (SNT) for instance: over 100 demand-driven technology projects with industry, involving 450 staves, mostly data scientists, work in Luxembourg."

She also specified: "When it comes to fostering sustainable economic growth and new business opportunities, mastering technology is absolutely key. But in order for technology to translate into business and growth, ideas and competences have to be connected. So, yes, technology has an incredible capacity to make complex connections between vast amounts of information and develop solutions to our needs, but we must not forget that it lacks something only humans are capable of to make the connections that matter, that make a real difference to lives: a sense of purpose. "

"And this sense of purpose is what drives us. It emerges from our values, our beliefs, the things we care about and feel. So, if we want our businesses to thrive, to innovate, to grow and our economy to develop in a sustainable manner, we, as employers, have to engage and empower our staff, by being receptive to their ideas, listening them, creating space for interaction and creativity."

"We have an incredible mix of people in Luxembourg that come from different cultures, who have different ways of approaching a problem and finding a solution. They are in our schools, our university, our research institutions, our companies and our public sector. This is a tremendous asset that we need to nurture and build upon. Our talent pool is right before our eyes!", she concluded.