Watch Robert Scoble's video blog interview with Lance Knobel, the Forum's Special Adviser on the Annual Meeting Programme, 1999-2000, on how to get the best out of Davos. Scoble will be attending Davos for the first time in 2008.
K. Vaman Kamath, CEO, ICICI Bank and one of the Co-Chairs for the Annual Meeting in Davos in January says social and economic inclusion is key for continued future global development. "The top issue in the world today is inclusiveness,” he said.
The Fate of the Universe and the Search of Life by Sir Martin Rees and Christopher Chyba. What recent scientific discoveries have changed the plausibility of extraterrestrial life ?
Yossi shows his revolutionary personal pocket assistant
I am here in Davos as a participant of the World Economic forum where the formal sessions have just concluded and all I can say is Wow! We were selected late last year as a Technology Pioneer and to actually come here has been the most surreal experience of my life. I have been able to shake hands with some of my heroes and some of the people I don’t really like, but who are powerful enough that I went out of my way. I passed kings, presidents, prime ministers, senators, ayatollahs and gurus. I even had dinner with some of them. It was amazing to just sit in front of Tony Blair talking about a vision of a more effective global organization and realize that this is not a television in front of me.
I was thinking about the best highlights for me and it was really hard because there are thousands. From a business perspective, I was pleasantly surprised how valuable it was networking with the top of the high tech industry, but that still felt a bit like a Silicon Valley event. Some of the best sessions for me were the dinners where you can sit down with the most brilliant people in the world and talk about the most extraordinary things, and the workshops where you brainstorm with some of the most brilliant people in the world.
I took the train from Zurich to Davos with Geoffrey Moore. Geoff was on Documentum’s board, so I know him well, but it is still great to spend so much time with such a busy man and influential thinker. We discussed some of the trends away from computing and more toward collaboration and communication. He also gave me lots of hints on how to get the most out of Davos. This is Geoff’s sixth year at Davos and he hosted some of the best sessions.
Yesterday, I attended a session on innovation that was moderated by a correspondent for CNBC and observed by Tim Brown, the CEO of Ideo, and a professor from a Swiss Institute. I was in a group that included C. K. Prahalad, one of the greatest thinkers on the subject. Each group was tasked with the creation of a new product using different innovation models. We created a new game and film company that would take advantage of new gaming technologies with a sort of market-based collaboration between designers and customers. We were up against stiff and I was the one who presented our results. Bernard Liautaud, Chairman of Business Objects, did a fantastic job of presenting a carbon-trading fashion company using a terrorist cell market model and I believe that got the most votes. Our product didn’t do very well, but it was an honor to be able to work with CK.
The last session before Blair’s speech was a lunch session with some of the leading forward thinkers and CEOs of the future about what that future might look like in 2015. I sat next to John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, who was overly enthusiastic about a future where no needs to leave their room as holograms deliver your companions and even your outdoors right in front of you. In the second session, I sat next to Shai Agassi of SAP, where he laid out a vision of a physical world analog to the internet that helps deliver physical goods and items to you the way the internet delivers packets of data. Arianna Huffington laid out a world where everyone was not having sex, because they were experiencing virtual sex. I’m looking forward to seeing the summarizations of the session that covered new emerging life styles, increased globalization, more power in emerging markets and opportunities to tackle global warming, ubiquitous access to the internet for all, and securely handle user’s identities.
On Thursday night, I was in a wine dinner hosted by Jancis Robinson, the UK’s leading wine critic. Geoff gave me a bit of a ribbing because I dumped his dinner session on Mergers and Acquisitions Heatmap, because Geoff would have rather been tasting the Bordeaux wines. The bottles, which ranged in price from $200 to $800 each, were paid for by a Mister Ahkmatov, an industrialist from Ukraine, who was himself hosting the Prime Minister of Ukraine. It was a very generous gesture with the most incredible wines and terrific commentary from Jancis. We were kicked out at 10 and retired to the bar with the remaining bottles of wine hanging out with one of the world’s greatest wine experts.
I don’t know how to describe last night without reusing all the same superlatives. It started off with a political dinner where I met with John Kerry and sat at the same table as Senator Patrick Leahy and the Undersecretary of Treasury for International Affairs. Senator Leahy had interesting off the record commentary. I even got to ask Barney Frank over at the next table some questions about Sarbanes Oxley. Then I went to the Accel party where I got to meet Shimon Perez and ask him his opinion on the future of Iraq. I met one of my heros, Michael Porter, afterwards, which was a real treat. We then headed over to the Google party, which was wall to wall mayhem with every known famous person around. I met Sergey Brin and Larry Page but got to spend more time with Larry in a session on city design this morning. The guy is a renaissance man having figured out new models for flight transportation and influencing the design of Google's new $1B facility.
This evening I am heading out to the Geek Dinner, which originated back when the techies weren’t allowed at the Grand Gala. I have been told the Geek Dinner is much better. I understand that everyone will give a prediction as to what will be coming up in the next year.
I’ll write some more about the week later, but for now I have run out of adjectives to use. I would like thank Mitchell Baker, CEO of the Mozilla Foundation, for yield her spot to me for the Tech Pioneer competition, Dave Sifry, CEO of Technorati and who deservedly beat me in that competition, for yielding his seat at dinner and Mitch Kapor for his help in the conference.
John Newton - Co-founder Documentum and Alfresco
I think one of the most interesting and compelling things at Davos is how much this gathering of business leaders, politicians, NGOs, and other thought leaders has helped in sensitizing and exposing people to different dimensions of what is happening in the world.
While it is true that businesses have to make a profit, and deliver value to the customers, it is increasingly becoming clear that businesses also have to create larger goals and sense of purpose, where they can make a definite and positive impact to change the world. The Davos atmosphere is very conducive to promoting these ideals in companies.
The goal of the World Economic Forum is to make the world a better place, and you have business leaders working with other leaders to discuss all the global issues that we face, such as terrorism, pandemics or carbon emissions, AIDS, etc. We’ve got business leaders participating in intense debates that discuss these topics and I think it really helps them to understand the enormity of what is happening. So when they go back to their offices, I think that their thoughts and ideas get influenced by their Davos experience in some subliminal way, leading to more positive actions. This is truly the lasting impact of Davos on everyone who comes here.
Today, I also attended a very interesting discussion with Bill and Melinda Gates and Tom Friedman. It really gave me tremendous insight into how Bill and Melinda look at the whole process of philanthropy and how they believe they can make a difference in solving some of the problems in this world. Whatever they had to say is really an important lesson for all entrepreneurs who also want to do purposeful philanthropy and is truly an inspiration for all of us.
Nandan Nilekani, CEO and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies Ltd.
Niklas Zennstrom gives his highlights about Davos 2007, Skype and future of TV
Adam Pasick of Reuters describes the Davos in Second Life experiment.
Pandemics: Monitoring a Risk in Hibernation. After a period of heightened concern, the fear of a new global influenza pandemic has receded from media attention. Yet the risk remains basically unchanged and beyond influenza.
Pandemics: Monitoring a Risk in Hibernation. After a period of heightened concern, the fear of a new global influenza pandemic has receded from media attention. Yet the risk remains basically unchanged and beyond influenza.
I can reveal a little exclusive.
The first ever Tegla Laroupe Peace Run will take place in Davos next year at this time to coincide with the 2008 World Economic Forum.
The first steps were taken at at meeting this morning held in a small cafe in the main street of Davos.Four people - Tegla Loroupe, John Gage, Sandra McCoy
along with me had arranged to meet to discuss how we could help support Tegla's Peace Foundation which operates in Kenya.
We are all big supporters of Tegla, the international renowned long-distance runner, in her attempts to build a school and enourage people to run rather than create war on the border between Kenya and Uganda. Sandra is chairperson of the newly formed USA foundation while John, chief researcher and vice
president of Sun Microsystems, has been a huge fan ever since he first met Tegla at last year's Davos gathering.
I also met Tegla for the first time at last year's event and we have stayed in touch since then. Tegla is a huge supporter of my own organisation, the Homeless World Cup, and she came down to this year's event in Cape Town.
We were chewing over some ideas and thinking about how we could raise funds for the Foundation when we came up with the idea of organising various Peace Races in different cities around the world with proceeds going towards Tegla's great project.
Then we hit on the idea of including Davos in the programme of races and what better time to have the race than when everyone was gathered at the World
Economic Forum.
So, next year I can exclusively reveal that there will be at least four runners taking part - Tegla, Sandra, John and myself but we will be encouraging as many
other people as possible to join in. Watch this space!
There are some wonderful discussions at Davos - particularly this year - but as a social entrepreneur I am always driven to the practical application of anything. So while people talk about ending poverty, stopping wars and protecting children I worry that nothing will actually happen. It's easy to talk but much more difficult to act.
So this morning's meeting was a joy. We just used our joint passion for Tegla's vision and applied our creative thinking and came up with a plan. We agreed to
make it happen and within a few minutes we are announcing it to the world.
It will happen. It will help make a difference to some people in Kenya. It's a small offering but it is positive. If everyone did something - however small - then we will change the world forever.
Mel Young - President and CEO, The Homeless World Cup
Dave Sifry, head of the blog search engine Technorati, explains his first Davos experience, including the evenings...
I think if you are familiar with today’s technology, you won’t be surprised
how ridiculous the above forecasts were, and those forecasts were all made by
those visionaries, who shaped the agendas at their times and some of them are
shaping our agenda now. Now let me show you the following forecast who was
freshly made:
So is it back to old days again? Yes and no. Let’s put aside technical
details on why computing paradigm is shifting to old ways again, one thing is
for sure. That is, the future is hard to be predicted; hence the agenda is
tough to be set, it holds for both elites and grassroots. For you to understand
my agenda better before shaping it together, let me show you a few more
examples, before yahoo! went to public, who knew it was a huge business
opportunity for online ads except both Jerry Yang, David Filo and a few VCs who
visited Yahoo!’s old office located at a garage? Who would imagine the
wild popularity of both myspace and youtube except their co-founders as
well as a few VCs? When I was a fresh graduate student in the Fall of 1994, saw
the system administrator at our Lab who set up Mosaic web sever and browser clients for
us, I never thought that it could led to quite a few successful IPOs,
just to name a few: Netscape, Yahoo!, amazon, ebay among others. Even for
seasoned entrepreneur and angel
investor like Rob Ryan, the founder of Ascend and Entrepreneur
America, in his book titled Entrepreneur America, expressed his regret on not investing on Pierre Omidyar’s eBay, which cost
his opportunity on increasing his fortune even more significantly. On the
other hand, the smart angel investor might be Andy Bechotolsheim, who
wrote a check in the amount of less than his half year’s salary for
tow co-founders of google, and generated a ROI that no one could ever imagine
after google went to public.
So I would suggest all of us, whether for our business, for our country, or
for our world, setting the agenda first, even primary, and then shape. Shaping
an unsettled agenda is like driving on a frozen lake, it is way too dangerous.
Ed Y. Zhang
Frontier Blog - Making History of High-tech Industry
I recently had an interesting conversation with BBC where they commented to the fact that India had a fantastic participation in Davos last year. The theme was of course about “India Everywhere”, and one year from then, BBC wanted to know where we stand today. My response was that India’s development is a continuous process and the Indian business community, as well as the Indian Government, have an ongoing engagement with the World Economic Forum with the goal of continuing the development. India continues to grow at a very healthy pace, a GDP growth of 8%, and there is an ongoing interest regarding the confidence within the business community in India and its ability to grow. This growth cuts across several sectors which includes manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, automotive, and of course services. Burgeoning confidence is now making Indian businesses look outside India for expansion, which means they are making investments in Europe, US and other places. Meanwhile, India has become the second most attractive destination for foreign direct investment, which displaces US from the second position, and this is very significant. That means there is enough visibility for India to attract both the investments as well as businesses development, which has positioned India as a growth market. It is a fact that while there is a talent war going on in India, the country is still the most attractive destination for talent. We have a scalable infrastructure, the scalable resources, and also a significant technology talent pool of about 300,000 engineer graduates in the year. India has made significant progress since last year’s WEF, and I look forward to returning next year with more good news.
On a different note, Infosys recently hosted a Breakfast Debate where the topic of focus was “Sustainable Development,” a key issue the world is currently facing. What occurred was a very healthy debate with very active participants across the board, including the Chairman and CEO of Shell as well as several other dignitaries. It was very well represented by both the head of businesses and as well as some of the people from NGO community and some from academia. We discussed the challenges of sustainable development, especially in regards to India and China, which are quickly emerging markets. With such rapid economic development, how can collaboration between the western world and these markets help to ensure that this development can be tempered so that India and China do not have to necessarily contribute to the carbon dioxide emissions as it has happened in the West, and how can technology be leveraged to improve the situation? This discussion is partly caused by the fact that today there are no real global standards in measuring carbon dioxide emissions, so what can governments and regulators do to de-incentivize activity by those who contribute more and incentivizing those who are doing a great job in protecting the environment? It is these types of conversations between the influencers of industry and government that can only occur at the World Economic Forum.
BG Srinivas, Sr. Vice President and Head - Europe, Middle East & Africa
I was in two sessions yesterday and found both to deliver what I have come to expect from the Forum – thoughtful debates and interesting dialogues.
The first session revolved around what, or rather, whose standards should apply in emerging markets. This is a very important discussion as standards are directly related to cost and now there is a fear that standards can be used as barriers to entry for emerging market MNCs into well-developed markets.
I was happy to note that there was consensus on the view that there are too many standards and too many requirements. Rationalizing all these is important and we should have a single set of standards across what is legally required, what is an industry standard, and what is the company standard. After all, multiple audits done by multiple organizations can be quite confusing.
The second important point which came out was that in these standard bodies, (and standard bodies should really be organizations which are globally respected), there must be representation from developing nations and you must facilitate developing nations to participate and be part of the standards setting process. There were also a lot of discussions about government’s role, and general opinion shared was that government’s role must be limited unless it is legally required.
The other interesting session I attended was on innovation. This is a session I always enjoy attending because I am passionate about innovation. In this “hands-on” session we tried to work with three different models: the open source model, “Al-Qaeda model” and lastly the “market lead” model. The whole exercise was fun and it was very interesting to see how everything progressed. These types of sessions are an integral part of Davos – there was a high level of good participation and excellent discussions.
Of course, in addition to these sessions, Davos has had its fair share of socializing and fun as well. Last night, Infosys had a cocktail reception and we were overwhelmed with the response. There was great Indian food and many people could be overheard saying that it was “probably the best food in Davos” - or at least it was the best variety of food at Davos!
Today is Saturday and things are winding down. When we arrived in Davos we all thought we were going to experience some mild weather with no snow, but towards the end it is a pretty white winter here in Davos, lots of snow in fact! Compared to last year I believe this year has more snow. It has certainly been a very fascinating week for me here.
Kris Gopalakrishnan, President and Chief Operating Officer, Infosys Technologies Ltd.
This year's World Economic Forum was dominated by the internet. Global traders discussed it, sessions were blogged on it, newspaper executives talked endlessly both about their own sites and the extraordinary aquisitions and mergers turning internet geniuses into billionaires.
Rupert Murdock, top dog of the media moguls, spoke about NewsCorp buying MySpace and how his move had first been laughed at (for the price he paid) then hailed as a great deal.
Google's billion-dollar purchase of YouTube was viewed as both brilliant and stupid, depending to whom you chose to listen.
And the children (really, they are) who started these silly sites like Flickr (on which you place your holiday pictures for only $250 a year) and FaceBook (where you connect with friends) spoke to seasoned journalists like myswelf as if we were idiots.
And believe me, we are. They are worth billions of dollars, individually. We are not.
The founder/owner of FaceBook told me he, like, wanted to, like, connect people. Nah, he wasn't really interested in the money. But he did use the capital he generated from received revenues for advertising to, like, buy more servers.
"Yeah,"he said laconically, "we doubled capacity in the past six months and will probably do so again."
And what does the site do? "It, like, connects people. College students mainly. Who share the same interests. We have about 16 million of them."
If you are a baby boomer, this was a Davos to make you feel old. Generation X is on the move, and the move is powered by Web 2.0 -- not that I understand what that means.
More conventionally, the expert economists who gathered in this Swiss mountain village all agreed that the world's economic outlook for 2007 was similar to 2006: another "goldilocks" year in which the three bears would stay away and the bulls would run again, perhaps just a little bit slower.
China, India, the US and Japan were all looking good as engines for the world economy.
One bear who might be lurking behind the trees in the woods was the housing market in the US, and a session entitled "What's that hissing sound?" was devoted to the US housing bubble, now beginning to leak.
Global warming was a big issue again with German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying it deserved to top the global agenda, and because of it Al Gore is again seen as a possible contender for the US Democratic nomination because of his "Än Inconvenient Truth" movie success about the planet's heating.
But even on the US election, everyone came back to saying the internet and blogging and new people-friendly websites are likely to be enormously influential, for the first time.
MoneyWeb's Alec Hogg and I had an argument about newspapers, he suggesting they are dying. In fact newspaper circulations grew five percent globally last year, but then again I have been dealing with this opinion on our impending death since 1973 when I first started in the industry.
Delightfully, Rupert Murdoch agreed with me that newspepers will still be around for a long time.
"Existing brands remain very very strong, and will still be around for a long long time. It is up to them to make their mark on the web and to do even better there than they do now," he said.
There were great discussions about blogs and bloggers, about a site called "dig" where stories are voted on, and if they get bad votes they drop down into a hole as they are "dug" by voters.
Davos also had the interesting session about the latest space missions, what depression was costing countries, how singles are running countries now and the womanisation of the workforce, sessions on colour and scent and technology.
There was geopolitics, examining who will succeed the US as a hyperpower, and influential politicians like Tony Blair and Merkel and President Mbeki made thoughtful inputs.
Each year at Davos, one country or continent has been the focus. Last year it was India. Before that China. Even Africa had its year.
But this year, it was the year of the internet. It overshadowed mere countries as its influence continues to grow globally, to grow and grow in multiples of digital doubling.
One day I am determined to understand it all.
Peter Sullivan - Group Editor-in-Chief, Independent Newspapers
Once again, the world's business and political thought leaders have gathered in the Swiss resort town of Davos, and, once again, India is being toasted and is toasting itself. I'm watching from afar, in NYC, but avidly reading the coverage in news stories and blogs. My strongest impression is that there is a lot of happy talk about India and its prospects, which is appropriate, but not much talk about its challenges. People seem to be papering over the country's infrastructure deficit, which, by some measures, is slowing GDP growth by 2%. And, coupled with that is the problem of the haves and the have nots. The vast majority of Indians have been left behind as the tech economy takes off. And they vote. Signs of trouble are already showing up. Pro-business and pro-reform politicians are being defeated at the polls, replaced by people who promise voters free TV sets, free water, and free electricity. Wrapped together, the infrastructure problem and the country's unruly politics constitute a serious challenge to India's aspirations to become one of the world's top economies. So, sure, Indians should party at Davos. But unless they make huge amounts of progress back home, the hangover could be quite painful.
Steve Hamm, BusinessWeek
As Davos 2007 heads into the final straight, there are fresh issues popping up every minute that are provoking fierce debates. Yesterday, I attended a session on ‘banking the unbanked’ which generated some interesting discussions about the huge population out there who are currently unbanked - not just in the developing world but in regions where we’d never expect this to be a problem.
Reasons for the lack of credit available in the less developed part of the world are pretty self explanatory. Poorer people represent a higher risk and lower return on investment for banks and financial institutions and as a result they’re reluctant to get involved in these regions. Different regions are responding in different ways however many are reliant on non-government organisations to help with funding.
What amazed me, however, was to hear that some fifty million people in the United States are also unbanked. This is a startling fact for a country with such a developed economy however it boils down to the same reason – some individuals just represent too high a credit risk.
A number of financial executives I spoke to agreed that technology could be a great enabler in giving banks a return on their investment and making it a risk worth taking. An effective use of technology can reduce the cost of transactions and there is a great opportunity for large financial institutions to participate in the development of these financial economies creating a tailored range of products and services. Time will tell as to what degree this opportunity is embraced.
Today’s discussions, however, have turned to the main concerns of business leaders in Asia. Contrary to expectation, the top two worries among Asian business executives were water availability and energy availability…and the impact of these factors on individual’s quality of life.
This is clearly a reflection of how rapidly these economies are developing, perhaps too rapidly. Indian and Chinese businesses and US companies with operations in these countries are all faced with the fact that the environment cannot keep up with their amazing growth and development creating a situation where climate change is becoming a huge issue. And it’s the globe, not just their local environment, which is impacted.
After another frantic day at Davos, it was great to relax at the McKinsey ‘Nite-cap’ party last night. The music, company and general ambience made it the standout cocktail reception of the World Economic Forum so far.
Sadly, Davos for this year is drawing to a close but there have been a fascinating range of topics covered in the conversations I’ve had with other delegates. With the Infosys cocktail reception this evening and tomorrows Addressing Global Risks session, I’ve no doubt that there’s plenty more to come.
Ashok Vemuri, SVP and head - Banking and Capital Markets business, Infosys Technologies
Football crosses all borders. It doesn't seem to matter who you are or where you come from, people understand football.
I've been overwhelmed by the number of people who have come up to me at this year's event either to congratulate me on the growth of the Homeless World Cup or ask how things are going.
It seems many people followed the progress of last year's event in Cape Town via the enormous media coverage it received. The idea of homeless people playing the "beautiful game" and changing their lives as a result has really captured people's imagination.
Because of the success of the event in terms of changing the lives of homeless people and the demand from new countries wanting to participate we are going through a process of rapid growth. The demand is massive and we are simply trying to find more partners to turn our global dream into reality.
But it's the football which is the drawing power. Who won, asks one person? A gasp when I say it was Russia. What was there secret? Planning and fitness. What about Italy who won twice before? They were just overwhelmed this year.
And Cape Town - what was that like as a venue particularly with the World Cup going there in 2010? It was welcoming and friendly and we had more African nations particapating than ever before. In fact we had more countries than ever at 48.
So it goes on, people are fascinated and want to know more. Sport and football in particular has enormous power and it can make significant change in people's lives. Those who watch or play football understand this but now other people are being drawn in as well. So much more can be done.
"How do I get to play," half jokes another. Football can be like a magnet and attract people from everywhere.
The ball may be round and beautiful but what's really magic about it is its potential power to create change. Change is very much on this year particularly at this summit where climate change dominates most of the agenda.
It's the marrying together of social, environmental and business issues which will provide results. And that's really exciting.
Despite the apparent ingrained problems in the world there is an air of optimism amongst this year's delegates. Yes, we can create change in all sectors and
improve the world for everyone. It seems football has a role to play too along with other initiatives -time to kick the ball and change the world in the process.
Mel Young - President and CEO, The Homeless World Cup
Richard Edelman presents this years' findings of the Edelman trust survey and also explains how he sees the communication and marketing industry evolving with the Internet changes. video file
Jack Ma is founder of Alibaba Group that just acquired Yahoo! China and one of the best entrepreneurs in China. video.
David Kirkpatrick of Fortune Magazine describes where he sees technology going and the Avatars session that happened this year in Davos. video file.
John Gage is Chief Researcher and VP of Sun Microsystems. He describes his views on the future and the impact of Second Life. video
Former ambassador of Jordan in the USA Karim Kawar explains his move to business
Marcel Reichart of Burda Media talks about the environment task force, Germany and the DLD conference.
Martina Gmür explais the Young Global Leader program.
Likely to be next Prime Minister of Serbia, Bozidar shares his views on Europe and Serbia with us.
Famous photographer and environment Activist Yann Arthus Bertrand discusses how we should all act to protect the planet.
Technorati Tags: davos07
Technorati Tags: davos07
John Hope Bryant is one of the best social entrepreneur I know. John's mission: "There is a difference between broke and being poor. Being broke is a temporary economic condition, but being poor is a disabling frame of mind and a depressed condition of your spirit, and you must vow to never, ever be poor again."
Day Two of Davos and I’m still holding up, despite an excellent late-night dinner hosted by WEF founder Klaus Schwab and a 7.30 breakfast session this morning on sustainable development hosted by Infosys and chaired by the BBC’s John Humphrys.
For such an early start it turned out to be a very spirited discussion indeed with valuable contributions from Shell chairman Jeroen van der Veer, Nestle’s Peter Brabeck, and Infosys chief executive Nandan Nilekani. The lively debate centered around whether there is too much focus on carbon dioxide (CO2) and the degree to which it affects climate change – and what the role of business is.
However there was consensus that climate change was one of the main issues facing us all; that there should be a partnership between government and business to tackle CO2 emissions; and that government must put some basic, workable frameworks in place.
But I still haven’t got to the bottom of emissions trading. In particular, I don’t know whether it leads to a real reduction in carbon levels - or just reallocates them!
Then it was on to a meeting of the Trans Atlantic Business Dialogue group, of which KPMG is a member. German chancellor Angela Merkel gave an extremely impressive presentation in English. And I’m delighted to say that in addition to being completely committed to making progress on the stalled Doha round of trade talks, she is also very clear about the need to break down trade barriers between Europe and the US.
As you know, Germany currently chairs both the European Union and the G8 group of leading industrialized countries. What a pity trade issues weren’t higher on the agenda of previous presidencies!
Chancellor Merkel’s views are very much in tune with the TABD’s mission to champion the removal of artificial trade barriers, oppose narrow economic nationalism and promote competition and choice.
There is so much at stake – some $3 trillion of trade between the US and Europe alone. If these barriers were eliminated altogether, GDP growth in the US and European would be boosted by three per cent.
As for Doha, there is an awful lot of behind-the scenes activity going on here – and hopes of a breakthrough are growing. If a deal can be reached in the next couple of days, that would prove the real value of Davos – and help to ease my concern about the carbon cost of staging the event. So there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic as I set off on another round of receptions this evening!
Mike Rake - Chairman, KPMG International
The momentum is building around climate change. These quotes just in:
''By putting climate change at the top of the Davos 2007 agenda, the World Economic Forum has focused on the key challenge of our time. The moment to act is now. Many of those present in Davos have the power to move decisively on global emission reductions - the world is looking to them to rise to this crucial challenge." "The climate change programme at this year's Annual Meeting shows just how crucial business leaders believe these issues are, and just how serious they are in finding real solutions in partnership with governments and leading NGOs. The companies represented at the Annual Meeting have a combined turnover of about US$10 trillion - nearly a quarter of global GDP - so catalysing their deeper engagement in this issue can only be a good thing for all of us." There's a plenary session on climate change on Thursday - Watch the live webcast
Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Program
Dominic Waughray, Head of Environmental Initiatives, World Economic Forum
Well, I’ve finally made it through the snow and heavy traffic to Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
I travelled up to Davos from a meeting in our Zurich office, which, with others, had been attacked over the weekend by anti-globalisation protestors. Paint was thrown over the walls – at least it was in KPMG blue! I wonder if my Swiss colleagues will invite me back in a hurry…
In the car I wondered about the size of the carbon footprint that delegates will leave getting to and from Davos. Then I found out that if I paid some organization $150 I could offset my own CO2 emissions. I’m not sure exactly how that works but I’m sure I‘ll ind out in the next few days.
Of course, climate change is one of the main themes of this year’s WEF and there are 17 such sessions planned over the next few days, bringing together politicians, business leaders, top academics and non-governmental (NGO) representatives.
My first stop is the Congress Centre where Sir Nicholas Stern, author of a recent ground-breaking report on the subject for the UK government, is leading a session on the economics of climate change.
It’s the first time I’ve heard him speak and he gave some fascinating insights into the issue – but I came away still confused about carbon trading.
Like Stern, I’m a great believer in taking the long term view – and of the imperative to take action now on climate change. While there is no silver bullet, it’s clear to me that the environment is an issue for everyone - governments, businesses and individuals must take their own responsibility.
Indeed, even if the growing scientific consensus on global warming is wrong, we will all benefit from taking action now. In this sense, we can’t lose. But by doing nothing we risk catastrophe.
For now, though, a packed schedule beckons. This evening KPMG is hosting a reception for clients at the Belvedere Hotel and I’ll also attend several other cocktail parties before ending up at a private dinner hosted by WEF founder Klaus Schwab.
German chancellor Angela Merkel is also due to attend. I remember last year she was crowned ‘Queen of Davos’ , such was the impact she made on delegates. Given that Germany is currently president of both the European Union and the G8 group of leading industrialized nations, I think she’ll have no problem retaining her title this year!
Sir Michael Rake, Chairman, KPMG International
This post is copied from Frontier Blog at http://www.hwswworld.com/wp by Frontier Journal, the High-tech Think Tank and Action Workbench
It was a pity since we missed the deadline for media participation application to report at World Economics Forum at Davos during 1/24 and 1/28. I do hope next January I shall fly to Switzerland to show up at Davos Forum, get a chance to conduct field reporting through daily blogging (even hourly blogging if necessary), lunch meeting, as well as live interviewing with those visionary leaders in industries, academia as well as governments, just as what I did during DAC 2006 at San Francisco (http://www.hwswworld.com/interview_dac.php and http://www.hwswworld.com/interview_lunch.php ) Of course, even if not physically attending the forum, it does not prevent us on reporting and commenting on the world class elite summit, thanks to the Internet. As technologies advance in such a rapidly pace, distance is not a problem any more. For example, our upcoming Frontier Visionary Panel, with panelists confirmed so far consists of world class technology gurus and as well as business leaders, will be conducted in a unconventional way (http://www.hwswworld.com/interview.php ). So do we still need trade shows, conferences as well as forums? yes, we do in certain sense, face-to-face communication, albeit with the expensive costs in terms of money and time, it is still the most effective and efficient way, that is why Frontier Journal is happy to be the Media Sponsor of DesignCon 2007 (http://www.designcon.com/2007 ). A good analogy is on movie watching, would you like to rent a video tape from nearby Blockbuster store or rent it online from netflix.com, or drive to your nearby Century Cinemas or things like that? For most people including me, of course, enjoying a movie at a cinema is much better than watching a vide tape at home.
More than one week ago, Time Magazine published a cover story writhen by several of its correspondents from all over the world titled The Chinese Century, claiming China might take over the US as the world super-power in the century peacefully. Now this might be a compliment or good news to Chinese, is that a bad news to American? I do not think so. Just like what happens in business world, for any country in world affairs, to gain competitive advantages through competitive strategy, it is not necessary to be as a winner by making your competitor(s) as loser(s). It is most likely that a win-win scenario could be created in gaining mutual prosperity in a globalized, tightly integrated economy. so whether you a Chinese citizen, a US citizen, or a citizen of a country other than China and US, it is not important for you, as a global citizen, should push respective government to forge a peaceful atmosphere that could facilitate wealth creation, power reduction and spirit enhancement, and make our globe much more secure as well as comfortable. Winning without battling, even economically such as through trade wars, reducing conflicts through peaceful negotiations and settlement should be the top priority in today’s world affairs. Looking back in the human being’s history, who cares as of today, that Roman Empire, or even the most recent falling of British Empire? United Kingdom, as a developed country with glorious history, is still highly competitive in high-tech, and immigrates lots of high-tech elites to countries like US, Canada as well as Austria, and they are thriving again during past several decades. It is really does not matter for any country ups and downs in the river of the history - - The World Is Small, yet the Universe Is Big
This year Davos Forum unveiled the program for its Annual Meeting, under the overarching theme of ‘Shaping the Global Agenda, The Shifting Power Equation’, leaders
from all over the world will share their visions and insights on the impact of The Shifting Power Equation, and let sit down, take a breath, watch and listen what they would deliver to us. I think, any one, whether as an individual, a business, or a country, if he or she gets rid off his or here Winner’s and Loser’s Attitude, and fully embrace Participant’s Attitude, then the future will be bright for everyone.
So participate by being an actor or actress in your personal life as well as business life, make our world peaceful, enjoyable and prosperous, since Living is Writing, and Life is a Drama
Davos 2006: Big CEOs with big cigars and a vision to save the world
If Steven Spielberg would be asked to produce a movie about a secretive meeting of the most powerful people in the world who come together in the Swiss mountains in order to save the planet, he could not do a better job than Professor Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum. There is no place like Davos and there is almost no big name in the world of business, culture, sports and religion which can not be found on the stunning list of participants: Bill Clinton, Queen Rania of Jordan, Bill Gates, George Soros, Kofi Annan, Georgio Armani, Angelina Jolie, Michael Douglas, Peter Gabriel, dozens of heads of states, ambassadors and ministers, the CEOs of almost all major billion dollar companies, modern mystics and sports legends such as Mohammed Ali and Pele. Conspiracy More than 2200 power players and celebrities came from all continents to join the biggest elite gathering of the world. They hover in by helicopter or climb out of luxurious limousines - always surrounded by bodyguards with head sets and protected by snipers on the roofs. Security is tight in Davos. Together the CEOs and owners of conglomerates who come here control more than half of the income of the whole world. This stunning fact inspires the wildest conspiracy theories. Before I came to Davos I was convinced that here in the small and quiet mountain village big CEOs with big cigars have their secret meetings with presidents, dictators and ministers, Arabian rulers, secret service agents as well as billionaires. In discrete hotel rooms filled with cigar smoke they meet in order to divide the world amongst each other and decide over war and peace. I still think that this is right and I wish I could attend one of these meetings. However what really surprised me is how serious Professor Schwab is with his vision and his mission. In 1971 Professor Schwab came up with the idea to found an independent and neutral Swiss organization that brings together the most influential people in order to improve the state of the world. Now, a little more than 30 years later, the whole world elite follows his invitation and for many celebrities it is the no plus ultra to get a Davos badge. "There is too much talk at the World Economic Forum", complains George Soros, one of the most legendary and outspoken members of the World Economic Forum. Soros gave away billions of dollars to his Open Society Institute in order to fight the suffering of the world. The philanthropist would love to see his complacent fellow billionaires and the CEOs doing the same thing. If they would, they could solve almost all the problems of the planet and certainly would find a good night's sleep. Kofi Annan and his Devils Professor Schwab is aware of the immense power of his "Private World Government. " He constantly tries to open the eyes of his elite club members who probably eat with golden folks from golden plates. In India he encouraged companies like Infosys and Cisco Systems to finance food for Indian school children who have almost nothing to eat and he is also a big supporter of Kofi Annan. Therefore it is no surprise that the Secretary General of the United Nations launched his historic Global Compact between the United Nations and the private sector at the World Economic Forum in 1999. "Many of my colleagues in the Secretariat - and many representatives of member States - would hardly have been more shocked if I had proposed a compact with the Devil", Kofi Annan recalled in his plenary session at the most recent Davos meeting on January 26 where he talked about "A new Mindset for the United Nations." CEOs and members of the private sector are not necessarily devils, however Kofi Annan needs all the help that he can get. Among the 2400 companies who joined his Global Compact initiative in order to fight corruption and the subsequent poverty are many members of the World Economic Forum such as Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the CEO of Nestle and Maurice Levy the CEO of the Publicis Group. Queen Rania: The Arabian Queen of hearts. The session of Queen Rania of Jordan was - as always - the crown and the highlight of Davos 2006. The Arabian Queen of hearts uses her brilliant mind, her stunning beauty and her big heart to bring more love and peace into the relationship between Muslims and other confessions. "Youth is the catalyst for change - change is the only constant", she said in her session and explained that her region urgently needs to build 50 million jobs for young people: "We have to empower young people to be creative", Queen Rania says. Together with King Abdullah she works hard to encourage young people to build a vision for their life and she constantly encourages other women to use their power to change things for the better. Billion Dollar Bill Clinton After I was fortunate to cover Bill Clinton's Global Initiative last September in New York, I was really curious to see how Mr. Schwab would react to the fact that the former President of the United States copied his invention. I was surprised. Instead of witnessing a fight of divas I saw two good old friends teaming up for the same heroic mission to save the world. With his charisma and his powers of persuasion, Bill Clinton managed to collect more than 1.25 billion dollars in only three days for almost 200 humanitarian and environmental projects all over the world. His trick: After being a politician almost all his life he did not let the participants get away with talk. Every one of his rich friends had to sign a check. On Saturday January 28, Bill Clinton said he wants to work even more closely with Klaus Schwab and maybe George Soros will be happy soon, when the members of the World Economic Forum open their hearts and dig deep in their pockets in order to follow the example and donate a billion dollars for good causes as well. Bill Clinton said it is easy to destroy but very hard to build. It is easy to criticize the World Economic Forum but almost impossible to build a phenomenon like this. I think with the unparalleled initiatives of Klaus Schwab and his excellent staff, the world is in much better shape. There is no place like Davos. I am very happy with the stunning Davos 2006 and I think most colleagues from the reporting press are also happy with their scoops. To me it is always a great privilege to be invited to the meetings of the World Economic Forum. Therefore I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Klaus Schwab, Mark Adams, the Director of Media, Senior Press Officer Fon Mathuros and the whole world class team of the WEF that they allowed me to cover "History as it Happens." Irene Hell, Correspondent for The Independent on Sunday.
After a very successful Annual Meeting, (and one week off), we are now working on how to put the thoughts and ideas generated throughout the Annual Meeting into concrete actions. The ideas ranged from creating a social venture fund with private-public seed money for pro-poor business activities, to conveying information about disease outbreaks, etc., using our Members' e-mail networks. However, the key question in the area of "New Mindsets / Changing Attitudes" raised during the Big Debate in Davos has been "How can we create a global education framework that fosters inclusivity?" We are now assessing the different ideas, as well as our existing initiatives and projects, to come up with a concrete implementation plan by the end of March. We will keep you posted. Best regards, Saman Ahsan & Emanuel Frauenlob
WHAT SHOULD BE ON THE AGENDA OF THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM—OR WHATEVER REPLACES IT—A DECADE FROM NOW?
John Elkington assesses his view of the future of the Forum in 2015. Read the full pdf article and tell us whether you agree or diagree with his assessment. He outlines two challenges for the Forum below:
"While our survey shows real interest in how WEF can build more effective bridges to a range of social and environmental initiatives in the pivotal decade through to 2015, there is a clear sense that the Forum faces a number of key challenges in helping to create coherent global governance processes and institutions. The first risk is that certain major countries—notably the United States and perhaps China, too—will turn their backs on the deliberations of the Davos elite. The United States, intentionally or not, may well be coaching China in how to play the unilateralism game. The second risk is that the Forum’s growing attempts to embrace a wider universe of stakeholders will dilute the original, highly exclusive “spirit of Davos” and, as a result, persuade key actors to peel off and form less inclusive, stealthier ‘clubs’ and cabals."
Boardroom Talk
Davos Diary: Day Four
On the last day of a memorable WEF meeting, Alec Hogg spends an hour with Richard Branson; gets insight into May’s Africa Summit; sheds a tear of respect for The Greatest; and mixes up his Beethoven and Mozart.
By Alec Hogg
DAVOS – Although proceedings actually formally close the next morning, for most Weffers the annual meetings conclude with the traditional Saturday night soiree.
Almost like bidders for the Olympic games, countries and cities vie for the honour of hosting one of the two events. In Davos 2006 the baton was handed to India and New Orleans. Neither disappointed. More of that later.
11:00am – After the hectic schedule of the last four days, allowed myself the luxury of sleeping in late and enjoying a leisurely breakfast before ambling along to the conference centre for a meeting with Mike Solomon, CEO of Wesizwe Platinum. We had agreed to meet for coffee and a chat.
Mike is keen to straighten out a few things after a tough radio interview a few weeks before. A mining engineer frustrated by the sector’s stodginess, he joined the ANC long before it was popular. His contribution to formulating the new SA’s mining policy is considerable, spending the early 1990s as a cadre at Shell House (the ANC’s old headquarters).
Cutting short a fascinating story, Mike had his arm twisted by financial advisors to the Bakubung tribe, poor neighbours of the fabulously wealthy Bafokeng.
His mission is to build an investment arm for the Bakubung, repeating the Bafokeng experience by leveraging the substantial platinum mineral rights the tribe owns. But Solomon inherited a mess and embarked on what was essentially a turnaround job first before being able to market the investment opportunity.
It hasn’t been an easy ride, but Solomon is honest and sincere, his heart’s in the right place and he’s determined to make it work. He wanted to straighten out a few things and two hours later has achieved his purpose. The only downside is the discussion is so intense we miss former US President Bill Clinton’s plenary address.
1:30pm – As the end of the annual meeting draws nearer, it’s off to the annual African delegation brainstorm on what issues to focus upon at the WEF’s continental summit that kicks off on May 31.
Led by the ever enthusiastic Haiko Alfeld, the discussion is lively with plenty of suggestions on how to show off the success stories of a continent that abounds with them. A theme of Going For Growth is agreed and various sub-committees formed to focus on some issues.
Patrice Motsepe has brought along a Latin American professor (who is also a director of Barcelona FC) and is full of ideas. Similarly last year summit’s co-chair Lazarus Zim and Sasol’s Pat Davies.
After making some suggestions, find myself volunteered to contribute to the marketing sub-committee. Will be swapping notes and ideas with Mark Read, a Brit, who heads strategy at the giant advertising group WPP. Wonderful opportunity to interact with one of the industry’s rising stars. WPP has been commissioned to examine ways of finding a new positioning for the continent.
4pm – Anoth
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