Gold Magazine September - October 2013, Issue 30 | Page 66

management

to be unrealistic. The only other alternative
was for the EU to lend us the money (as
they did in Greece) but that would have
driven our debt to unsustainable levels,
something that the IMF was averse to.
Gold: You are a Professor of Strategy
and Entrepreneurship, two concepts
which, in this post-bailout era situation,
Cyprus would appear to need more than
ever. So what should the government’s
basic strategy be if the economy is to
recover?
C.M.: First, can I just say that it always
takes two to tango. By this I mean that as
Cypriots, whenever we get into a mess, we
always think that it’s the Government’s
responsibility to do things that get us out
of the mess. Even if we accept that the
Government can do some things to help
the situation, we should not forget that we
(as individuals or companies) have an equal
responsibility to help out. My advice is to
always ask: “Suppose the Government does
nothing. What should I be doing to help
my company or my family succeed or get
out of the crisis?”
Now, in terms of what the Government
needs to do, I believe we need to separate
the short-term from the long-term. In the
short term, the Government is already taking lots of actions to kick-start the economy and there’s little I can add to this list of
actions. But more importantly for Cyprus,
we need to be setting the platform for the
long-term. This implies (a) correcting the
existing institutions of our society that
have been proven defective in the current
crisis (such as our corporate governance
system and the checks-and-balances system
that needs to exist between the executive
arm of government, the press and our
judicial system); (b) putting in place new
institutions that the crisis has revealed as
missing (such as new labour laws and new
economic institutions); and (c) developing an industrial strategy for our economy
that identifies which industries should be
promoted over the next 25 years and what
supporting institutions must be put in
place to help these industries prosper.

COSTAS MARKIDES
Costas Markides is a
Professor of Strategy
and Entrepreneurship
and holds the Robert P.
Bauman Chair of Strategic
Leadership at the London
Business School. A native
of Cyprus, he