"Wal-mart lost, while Tiffany's is growing. That's what happening today, says James Allen, Partner at Bain & Company, the management consulting firm that global leaders come to when they want results, as they say themselves. The Next Women met up with him:

As a strategist, James advises CEO’s globally on growth strategies He sees the following trends for the economic growth going forward:

1 billion new consumers in emerging countries.

Due to a growing population and rising wealth there will be 1 million new customers. However, at the same time there will be jobless recovery in the US and Europe where no jobs will be added, while there will be talent shortage in the East.

Competition for finite sources.

Either you need a huge shift in technology to find a solution for the growing demand for resources. Or you need to get into a world without capitalism or consumption, but that is hard to imagine. Solution could be that businesses take responsibility instead of government for this shortage of supply, such as the Adidas green plan. Employees who have a sense of mission and values that they impose upon their employers drive it also.

New Wave of Technological Innovation

Technologies, such as robotics and nanotechnology are new technologies that will have a major impact on companies. Companies can disappear overnight because of competitors coming in with new technologies. Look what happened with Kodak and Nokia in just a few years with their huge market share.

War for Talent

In India and Brazil there is a massive talent shortage for high skilled work.There is no mobile shortage white-collar workforce to sort this out. And it’s not going to help the local labor workforce. The generation Y needs to be attracted differently, loyalty needs to be redefined.

Reading al these trends, what is on top of your mind?

The uneven world. The jobless recovery in the US and Europe. To illustrate: Tiffany’s outgrew Wal-Mart, which basically means: jobs creation in the lower tiers of the working population is not taking place, while rich people keep on buying diamonds.

So people shall be moving east where there is a shortage of talent?

No, it’s a myth; only 1% of the people are prepared to move to the East. It’s also not the young people that will have the job problem, they adapt fast, and they are keeping pace with technology developments. It’s the older generation in North America and Europe, it’s people who are already laid off, there is no strategy yet for them.

What are you advising companies to tackle the jobless recovery?

"We used to advise companies that you could do more with less; so more turnover with less people on the payroll. So primarily it was: grow revenue, cut jobs. We focused on growth in the emerging countries, and cuts in the developed world. We need to shift our advice, focus on growth in North America and Europe. Job creation in that region should be on the agenda, not ‘doing more with less’."

Are family owned businesses in Europe the answer ?

"I am not sure, they are important – not only in Europe – but also in India and Israel for example. Issue is here: How to create an objective dialogue for the next generation to take over. Fathers hand over to their daughters or their sons. The strategy here is to educate the father to let go.

It’s more a generational issue than a gender specific issue.The next generation may have different views on ambition and family loyalty. Sometime ambition gets ahead in family loyalty. New vocabulary needs to be designed so that the next generation can transform the business. But what it will do for job recovery is not clear yet.