John Béguin - Chairman
To the casual observer that I was, the New Champion’s Meeting held in late September 2008 was an unnerving place. In an early Monday morning announcement a few days prior to the opening of the World Economic Forum Meeting in Beijing’s neighbouring port city of Tianjin, Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 protection provoking the Dow Jones’ largest drop in a single day since 2001 and several of the world’s leading businesses were following suit.
“This is probably the first transformational crisis of our globalized age,” said Klaus Schwab at the closing of the event, whilst exhorting public and private partners not to surrender to panic as they faced the unfolding crisis.
Barely a year has gone by and some estimates have it that the worst of the crisis may be behind us, although some analysts and CEOs believe that this year may offer little respite. The current conjuncture is a textbook illustration of the true uncertainty that confronts all global actors. Private and public policymakers are treading a tightrope while facing a bewildering environment and grappling with Rumsfeldian “known unknowns” as well as a number of “unknown unknowns”. Many a pundit believes that bygone are the deceptive and comfortable pre-crisis days and the global economy is probably heading for a multi-year reset rather than a return to the old normal.
If ever there were a time to reflect upon, recalibrate or even “reboot” the current state of the world, it most probably would be now – and the World Economic Forum’s choice of theme at this year’s 40th Annual Meeting in Davos clearly indicates that this is their intention. The pressure to “Rethink, Redesign and Rebuild” is increasing, along with the aforementioned concerns, and the Annual Meeting will create a unique platform for a systemic view of
the major economic, political, societal and technological forces currently at work. It will also allow global leaders to take stock of past mistakes and focus minds on the opportunities that are and will continue to emerge out of these challenging times.
The Forum’s Network of Global Agenda Councils is at the heart of the “rethink” process undertaken in Davos. The “redesign” discussions at the event will leverage the ongoing work of the Forum’s Global Redesign Initiative, a peerless multistakeholder dialogue focusing on adapting structures and systems of international cooperation to the challenges of the new decade. The Forum’s WELCOM collaborative platform will endeavour, yet again, to “rebuild”
trust by allowing participants to build knowledge, share insights and reach out to key stakeholders as an online community throughout the year.
Swiss Style has called upon some of those present at this, the 40th Annual Meeting, to share their thought processes, their efforts to adapt their tactical defence mechanisms to an uncertain environment and their aspirations to overhaul their countries’ and their companies’ long-term strategies.
I hope that these insights offer you “food-for-thought” … after all, as a wise old friend once advised, “You shouldn’t let a good crisis go to waste.”
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