Arturo Bris

Why organisations work with Arturo Bris

• He is the custodian of the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook – benchmarking 69 economies on 341 criteria annually – which means he brings a proprietary, data-based view of global competitive dynamics that no consultant or generalist economist can replicate.
• The Right Place (Routledge, 2021) makes a specific, evidence-based argument that national competitiveness explains more of corporate performance than internal strategy or leadership quality – a direct challenge to how most boards set their investment and expansion priorities.
• His research on 3,692 CEOs across 22 countries and three decades found that conventional analyses significantly overestimate the impact of individual leaders on firm performance – giving boards a more rigorous basis for leadership decisions and executive remuneration.
• His 2025 book SuperEurope provides a contrarian, data-backed case for Europe as a model of institutional resilience – directly actionable for multinationals reassessing their operating geography in light of US political fragmentation and US-China rivalry.
• As director of IMD’s Boards and Risks executive programme, he brings a structured, board-tested approach to systemic risk – spanning geopolitical exposure, social evolution, and technological disruption – rather than single-issue commentary.

Biography highlights

• Douglas Geertz IMEDE 1988 Professor in Geopolitics and Business, and Professor of Finance, IMD Lausanne
• Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center since 2014; annual rankings cover 69 economies on 341 criteria, including digital competitiveness, talent, and smart cities
• Former Robert B & Candice J. Haas Associate Professor of Corporate Finance, Yale School of Management
• Author of The Right Place (Routledge, 2021), SuperEurope (2025), Flex or Fail (2019), and Blockchange! (2018), among other books
• Academic research published in the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, and Review of Financial Studies; contributor to the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Handelsblatt
• Ranked in the top 100 most-read finance academics in the world
• TEDx speaker; featured at the World Government Summit and the World Knowledge Forum, Seoul
• PhD in Management, INSEAD; holds a named chair in Geopolitics and Business

Biography

Most companies explain their performance by pointing inward – to their strategy, their people, their execution. Arturo Bris, Douglas Geertz IMEDE 1988 Professor in Geopolitics and Business at IMD and Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, has spent two decades building the empirical case that this view is incomplete. The environment a company operates in – regulatory quality, institutional trust, infrastructure – shapes outcomes in ways that internal decisions cannot fully override.

The IMD World Competitiveness Center, which he has led since 2014, is the research institution behind this argument. It produces the most authoritative annual benchmarking of national competitiveness in the world – covering 69 economies across 341 criteria – and under his direction has expanded to include rankings on digital readiness, talent, and smart cities. His book The Right Place (Routledge, 2021) draws on 30 years of country-level data to explain why similar firms succeed in one country and fail in another, irrespective of their strategic choices.

His most recent book, SuperEurope (2025), extends this argument into live geopolitical territory – making a data-driven case that Europe’s institutional model is more resilient than its detractors claim, and more relevant to corporate location strategy than most boards currently recognise. His published research in the Journal of Finance and Journal of Financial Economics spans financial regulation, short-selling markets, corporate governance, and the macroeconomic effects of the Euro.

Before joining IMD, he was Associate Professor at the Yale School of Management, where he received the Best Teacher Award twice. He holds a PhD from INSEAD and advises boards and governments across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America through the Center’s network and IMD’s Boards and Risks executive programme.

Key speaking topics

• National competitiveness and its effects on corporate performance
• Geopolitics, economic fragmentation, and global trade
• Financial regulation and corporate governance
• The future of globalisation and protectionism
• Digital competitiveness and smart city development
• Scenario planning and strategic foresight for boards
• Labour markets, income inequality, and social mobility

Ideal for

• Boards and C-suite executives making geographic expansion, market entry, or investment allocation decisions
• Government ministers, policy teams, and national development bodies managing economic competitiveness
• CFOs and strategy directors navigating geopolitical risk and regulatory change across multiple operating environments
• Investment committees and sovereign wealth funds benchmarking market and country conditions

Audience outcomes

• A data-based framework for assessing how national competitiveness affects corporate strategy, location decisions, and investment risk
• A more calibrated view of how much macro-environment – versus internal leadership and strategy – drives firm performance, with implications for board priorities
• Practical insight into the current state of global economic fragmentation and how to model its effects on market access and supply chain resilience
• A structured approach to board-level systemic risk, integrating geopolitical, technological, and regulatory dimensions
• A clearer picture of where competitive advantage is shifting globally, grounded in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook data