Your boss or boss’s big boss would have just gotten back
from Davos. If you find them more responsive or responsible don’t blame them.
It is the Davos effect. After all, they have taken pains to travel to the Alps
and endure the snowy cold weather while attending the World Economic Forum meet
which they have been attending year after year regardless of what happens to
the company or the economy. All for the noble cause of making a ‘new world
order’.
The theme for the 2017 WEF meet was “Responsive and
Responsible Leadership”. Well, the theme is not meant for the 3000 odd
attendees of the Forum. They are very responsive and responsible. By the very
fact that they attend such important global meet they are responsive and
responsible. Obviously, the idea is to make the rest of the leaders who haven’t
attended the Forum more responsive and responsible. All these poor people who attend
more than 400 official sessions in a span of four days must be really
struggling to pick and choose from the competing sessions based on the topics
discussed. Truly each topic merits everyone’s attention. We need to appreciate
the physical inability of our great leaders to be present at multiple places
the same time. However, ordinary folks like us might ask as to how do they
choose from the 400 official sessions and so many unofficial but extremely important
meetings by the fireside, at the hotel lobbies and in the corridors. I
understood that these brilliant people use two thumb rules to resolve such
dilemma. 1. Don’t go by the topic (because everything is equally important);
instead go by the speaker profile. That solves half the problem. 2. Ask ‘what
is in it for me?’ to find out a potential reference for business, a potential
client, high media exposure or a combination of all or some of these. The new
world order can wait for some time.
All these 3000 leaders are ‘global’ luminaries in their own
fields- business, politics, economics (little bit), science, academics and social
sectors. Therefore, lot of stress is on globalization of trade, global peace,
global warming, health, welfare, inclusive growth, gender equality and many
such noble motherhood ideas. This year’s star attraction was the Chinese
President Xi Jinping who surprisingly became the new champion for
globalization. The absence of Obama and the shadow of Trump would have provided
some useful space to Jinping. Who knows, next year it could be North Korean
President who will speak about globalization. Everyone wants globalization so
long as their own national interest is ‘protected’. Mr. Trump is championing
globalization too provided all Americans buy only American goods and all American
companies make their goods in America.
Coming back to the theme of the 2017 Forum, it is unreasonable
to think that in a week’s time the world leadership would become responsive and
responsible. Let’s give them some time to implement all those big ideas came up
in the 400 sessions. After all, the world takes a little over 365 days to take
a revolution around the sun. No less. Have some patience. We also need to be
empathetic to these leaders. Some eight of the rich people (not sure all of
those have attended the meet this year, they are very busy people) control more
than half of the global private wealth. It may not be wrong to assume that
together the 3000 attendees of WEF 2017 must be controlling about 85% of global
wealth and political clout. When they have such onerous responsibility on their
shoulders they can’t be responsive to the satisfaction of 7.5 billion people.
It is for the rest of us to take care of all such small things.
Leave aside the latest episode. Let’s look at the themes of
the previous five WEF meets. Perhaps history may shed some light into the
future. In 2012 the theme was, ‘The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models’
whatever that may mean. Have you seen any great transformation around? I haven’t.
May be one ought to look within; all transformation ought to start with oneself.
The theme for 2013 was, ‘Resilient Dynamism’! You figure out what that means.
In 2014 it was like a theme song, ‘The Reshaping of the World: Consequences for
Society, Politics and Business’. Can you ask for more? In 2015 it got short and
sweet to read ‘New Global Context’. And in 2016 it got catchy saying ‘Mastering
the Fourth Industrial Revolution’. What have you got other than iPhone-7 and
Nougat OS?
Don’t get cynical. The world is changing and probably
becoming a better (no spelling mistake here) place to live, work and play. All
due to the 3000 great leaders meeting, eating and talking under freezing
conditions in a country that anyone who would admit to be a beautiful place.
Let the entourage happen year after year until SpaceX takes all of us to Mars.
Skating on thin ice won’t take you far. The verbal diarrhea
at Davos is like talking on thin ice!
I cannot end this piece without quoting what a celebrated
Economist of our times had to say about the who’s who of the Davos brigade. “I
called them the International Association of Namedroppers. They think it’s
their mission to solve a problem they don’t understand.”- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
