World Economic Forum

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World Economic Forum
Formation 1971
Type Non-profit organization
Legal status Foundation
Headquarters Cologny, Switzerland
Region served Worldwide
CEO Klaus M. Schwab
Website http://www.weforum.org/

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based non-profit foundation best known for its Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland which brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world including health and the environment. The Forum also organizes the "Annual Meeting of the New Champions" in China and a series of regional meetings throughout the year. It was founded in 1971 by Klaus M. Schwab, a business professor in Switzerland.[1] Beyond meetings, the Forum produces a series of research reports and engeges its members in sector specific initiatives. [2]

Contents

[edit] Organization

Photo: Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum.
Photo: Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum.

The Forum is headquartered in Cologny, Geneva, Switzerland. In 2006 the Forum opened regional offices in Beijing, China and New York, USA. It is impartial and not-for-profit and is not tied to any political, partisan or national interests. It has observer status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and is under the supervision of the Swiss Federal Government. Its highest governance body is the Foundation Board consisting of 22 members including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Queen Rania of Jordan. The Forum’s mission is "committed to improving the State of the World".[3]

[edit] Membership

The Forum is funded by its 1000 member companies. The typical member company is a global enterprise with more than five billion dollars in turnover, although the latter can vary by industry and region. In addition, these enterprises rank among the top companies within their industry and/or country and play a leading role in shaping the future of their industry and/or region. As of 2005, each member company pays a basic annual membership fee of CHF 42,500 and a CHF 18,000 Annual Meeting fee which covers the participation of its CEO at the Annual Meeting in Davos. Industry Partners and Strategic Partners pay CHF 250,000 and CHF 500,000 respectively allowing them to play a greater role in the Forum’s initiatives. [4][5]

[edit] Activities

[edit] Annual Meeting in Davos

Photo: Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Photo: Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The Forum’s flagship event is the Annual Meeting held every year at the end of January in Davos. The meeting in the Swiss alpine resort brings together CEOs from the Forum’s 1000 member companies as well as selected politicians, representatives from academia, NGOs, religious leaders and the media[6]. Participation at the Annual Meeting is by invitation only. Around 2200 participants gather for the five-day event and attend some 220 sessions in the official programme. The discussions focus around key issues of global concern (such as international conflicts, poverty and environmental problems) and possible solutions.[7] In all about 500 journalists from online, print, radio and TV take part in the Annual Meeting. The media has access to all of the sessions in the official program, some of which are also webcast live.[8]

All plenary debates from Davos are also available on YouTube[9], pictures are available for free at Flickr[10] and the key quotes are available on Twitter[11]. In 2007 the Forum opened pages on social media platforms such as MySpace[12] and FaceBook[13]. At the Annual Meeting 2008 the Forum invited the general public to answer the Davos Question on YouTube[14] allowing YouTube users to interact with the world leaders gathered in Davos who were encouraged to reply from a YouTube Video Corner at the congress centre[15]. In 2008 press conferences are live streamed on Qik[16] and Mogulus[17] allowing anyone to put questions to the speakers. In 2006 and 2007 selected participants were interviewed in, and the closing session was streamed into, Reuters’ auditorium in Second Life[18].

[edit] Participants

Photo: The Davos Conversation Corner run by YouTube at the Annual Meeting 2008 of the World Economic Forum.
Photo: The Davos Conversation Corner run by YouTube at the Annual Meeting 2008 of the World Economic Forum.

In 2008, some 250 public figures (head of state or government, cabinet ministers, ambassadors, heads or senior officials of international organization) attended the Annual Meeting, including: Abdoulaye Wade, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Alvaro Uribe Velez, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Ban Ki-moon, Condoleezza Rice, Ferenc Gyurcsany, François Fillon, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Gordon Brown, Hamid Karzai, Ilham Aliyev, Jan Peter Balkenende, Lee Hsien Loong, Pervez Musharraf, Queen Rania of Jordan, Salam Fayyad, Sali Berisha, Shimon Peres, Umaru Musa Yar'adua, Valdas Adamkus, Yasuo Fukuda, Viktor A. Yushchenko and Zeng Peiyan.[19]

Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Bono, Paulo Coelho and Tony Blair are also regular Davos attendees. Past attendees include: Angela Merkel, Dmitry Medvedev, Henry Kissinger, Nelson Mandela Raymond Barre and Yasser Arafat.

The participants at the Annual Meeting were described as “Davos Man” by Samuel Huntington, referring to a global elite whose members view themselves as completely international[20][21].

[edit] Annual Meeting of the New Champions

In 2007 the Forum established the “Annual Meeting of the New Champions” held annually in China. This is a meeting for what the Forum calls the “Global Growth Companies”. These are business champions primarily from rapidly growing emerging countries, such as China and India, but also including fast movers from developed countries. The meeting also engages with the next generation of global leaders, fast-growing regions, competitive cities and technology pioneers from around the globe.[22][23]

[edit] Regional meetings

Every year some ten regional meetings take place, enabling close contact between corporate business leaders, local government leaders and NGOs. Meetings are held in Africa, East Asia, Latin America and the Middle East The mix of hosting countries varies from year to year, but China and India have hosted consistently over the past decade.[24]

[edit] Young Global Leaders

In 2005 the Forum has established the community of Young Global Leaders, successor to the Global Leaders of Tomorrow consisting of under 40 year old leaders from all around the world and a myriad of disciplines and sectors. The leaders engage in the ‘2030 Initiative’ - the creation of an action plan for how to reach the vision of what the world could be like in 2030. Among the Young Global Leaders are[25]: Bandar Bin Khalid Al Faisal, Barry Appleton, Isabelle Guichot, Jae-Woong Lee, Marcel Reichart, Maria Consuelo Araujo, Rahul Gandhi and Violet E. Awotwi. New members are selected on a yearly basis and the Forum of Young Global Leaders will count 1111 members.[26][27][28]

[edit] Social Entrepreneurs

Since 2000, the Forum has been promoting models developed by the world’s leading social entrepreneurs in close collaboration with the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship[29]. The Foundation highlights social entrepreneurship as a key element to advance societies and address social problems[30][31]. Selected social entrepreneurs are invited to participate in the regional meetings and the Annual Meetings of the Forum where they have a chance to meet chief executives and senior government officials. At the Annual Meeting 2003, for example, Jeroo Bilimoria met Roberto Blois, deputy secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, an encounter that produced a key partnership for her organization Child Helpline International[32].

[edit] Research Reports

The Forum also serves as a think tank and produces a series of annual economic reports (first published in brackets): the Global Competitiveness Report (1979) measures competitiveness of countries and economies; The Global Information Technology Report (2001) assesses their competitiveness based on their IT readiness; the Global Gender Gap Report (2005) examines critical areas of inequality between men and women; the Global Risk Report (2006) assesses key global risks; the Global Travel and Tourism Report (2007) measures travel and tourism competitiveness and the Global Enabling Trade Report (2008) presents a cross-country analysis of the large number of measures facilitating trade between nations.[33]

[edit] Initiatives

The Global Health Initiative (GHI) was launched by Kofi Annan at the Annual Meeting in 2002. The GHI’s mission is to engage businesses in public-private partnerships to tackle HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria and Health Systems.

The Global Education Initiative (GEI), launched during the Annual Meeting in 2003, has brought together international IT companies and governments in Jordan, Egypt and India which has resulted in new PC hardware in the classrooms and more local teachers trained in e-learning. This is having a real impact on the lives of children. The GEI model which is scalable and sustainable is now being used as an educational blueprint in other countries including Rwanda.

The Environmental Initiative covers Climate Change and Water. Under the “Gleneagles Dialogue on Climate Change”, the UK government asked the World Economic Forum at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in 2005 to facilitate a dialogue with the business community to develop recommendations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This set of recommendations, endorsed by a global group of CEOs, was presented to leaders ahead of the G8 Summit in Toyako/Hokkaido held in July 2008.[34][35]

The Water Initiative brings together different stakeholders like Alcan Inc., the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, USAID India, UNDP India, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Government of Rajasthan and the NEPAD Business Foundation to develop public-private partnerships on water management in South Africa and India.

In an effort to combat corruption, the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) was launched by CEOs from the Engineering and Construction, Energy and Metals and Mining industries at the Annual Meeting in Davos in January 2004. PACI is a platform for peer exchange on practical experience and dilemma situations. Some 140 companies have signed.[36]

[edit] History

Photo: Frederik de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shake hands at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos in January 1992.
Photo: Frederik de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shake hands at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos in January 1992.

In 1971, Klaus M. Schwab, then Professor of business policy at the University of Geneva, invited 444 executives from Western European firms to the first European Management Symposium held in the recently built Davos Congress Centre. Under the patronage of the European Commission and European industrial associations Schwab wanted to introduce European firms to US management practices. He then founded the European Management Forum as a non-profit organization based in Geneva and drew European business leaders to Davos for their annual meeting each January.[37]

Schwab developed the "stakeholder" management approach which based corporate success on managers taking account of all interests: not merely shareholders, clients and customers, but employees and the communities within which the firm is situated, including governments.[38] Events in 1973, namely the collapse of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate mechanism and the Arab-Israeli War saw the annual meeting expand its focus from management to economic and social issues, and political leaders were invited for the first time to Davos in January 1974.[39]

The European Management Forum changed its name to the World Economic Forum in 1987 and sought to broaden its vision further to include providing a platform for resolving international conflicts. Political leaders have used Davos as a neutral platform to resolve their differences. The "Davos Declaration" was signed in 1988 by Greece and Turkey which saw them turn back from the brink of war. In 1992, South African President F. W. de Klerk met Nelson Mandela and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi at the Annual Meeting, their first joint appearance outside South Africa. At 1994’s Annual Meeting, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat reach a draft agreement on Gaza and Jericho.[40] In 2008 Bill Gates held a keynote speech on ‘Creative Capitalism’ – the form of capitalism that works both to generate profits and solve the world’s inequities, using market forces to better address the needs of the poor[41][42].

[edit] Criticism

In the late 1990s the Forum, as well as the G7, World Bank, WTO and the IMF, came under heavy criticism by anti-globalisation activists who claim capitalism and globalization are increasing poverty and destroying the environment. 1500 demonstrators disrupted the World Economic Forum in Melbourne, Australia, obstructing the passage of 200 delegates to the meeting[43]. Demonstrations are repeatedly held in Davos[44][45] to protest against the meeting of “fat cats in the snow” as rock singer Bono termed it[46].

In January 2000 1000 protestors marched through Davos and during the demonstrations the window of the local McDonalds was smashed[47]. The tight security measures around Davos have kept demonstrators away from accessing the Alpine resort and most demonstrations are now held in Zürich, Bern or Basel[48]. The costs of the security measures which are shared by the Forum and the Swiss cantonal and national authorities have also been frequently criticised in the Swiss national media[49].

Starting at the Annual Meeting in January 2003 in Davos, an Open Forum Davos was held in parallel with the main Annual Meeting opening up the debate about globalisation to the general public. The Open Forum has been held in the local high school every year featuring top politicians and business leaders and is open to all members of the public free of charge.[50][51]

The Annual Meeting has also been decried as a “mix of pomp and platitude” and criticized for moving away from serious economics and accomplishing little of substance, particularly with the increasing involvement of NGOs that have little or no expertise in economics. Instead of a discussion on the world economy with knowledgeable experts alongside key business and political players, Davos now features the top media political causes of the day (such as global climate change and AIDS in Africa).[52]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pigman p6-22
  2. ^ Pigman p41-42
  3. ^ Pigman p58-59
  4. ^ Pigman p23-30
  5. ^ Rothkopf p272
  6. ^ Q&A: World Economic Forum 2006, BBC, 23 January 2006: 11:15AM GMT, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  7. ^ Pigman p41-42
  8. ^ Forum’s homepage
  9. ^ http://www.youtube.com/user/WorldEconomicForum
  10. ^ http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum
  11. ^ http://twitter.com/worldeconomicforum
  12. ^ http://www.myspace.com/worldeconomicforum
  13. ^ http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2440681615
  14. ^ http://www.youtube.com/user/thedavosquestion
  15. ^ The Super-Awesome YouTube Room At Davos, Techcrunch, 26 January 2008, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  16. ^ http://qik.com/worldeconomicforum
  17. ^ http://www.mogulus.com/worldeconomicforum
  18. ^ Getting a Second Life in Davos, CNN, 26 January 2007: 10:07AM EST, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  19. ^ http://www.weforum.org/pdf/AM_2008/AM08_PublicFiguresList.pdfDavos 2008 guest list, Telegraph, 19 January 2008: 1:07AM GMT, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  20. ^ Davos man's death wish, The Guardian, 3 February 2008, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  21. ^ In Search of Davos Man, Time, 23 January 2005, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  22. ^ World Economic Forum: The Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions, China.org, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  23. ^ Summer Davos to put Dalian on business map, People's Daily, 1 August 2007, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  24. ^ http://www.weforum.org/en/events/index.htm
  25. ^ Meet some of the under-40s selected to join forces to shape a better future, Newsweek, 29 May 2005, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  26. ^ http://www.younggloballeaders.org/index.html
  27. ^ http://www.sohochina.com/en/news/detail.asp?id=21842&cid=11
  28. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGrOAyvjMWI
  29. ^ http://www.schwabfound.org/index.htm
  30. ^ Davos diary: Meetings of minds, BBC, 31 January 2005: 09:18 GMT, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  31. ^ Mike Moore, p209
  32. ^ Bornstein p272
  33. ^ Pigman p43, 92-112
  34. ^ Business chiefs urge carbon curbs, BBC, 20 June 2008, retrieved on 3 September 2008
  35. ^ Business chiefs call for G8 climate leadership, Reuters, 19 June 2008, retrieved on 3 September 2008
  36. ^ Pigman p115
  37. ^ Kellerman p229
  38. ^ Schwab and Kroos
  39. ^ Interview: Klaus Schwab'', Financial Times, 22 January 2008, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  40. ^ WEF and Davos: A brief history, Telegraph, 16 January 2008: 12:09AM, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  41. ^ Gates pushes ‘creative capitalism’, Financial Times, 25 January 2008, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  42. ^ Gates calls for creative capitalism, Reuters (video)
  43. ^ Economic Talks Open Minus 200 Delegates : Demonstrators Harass Melbourne Conference, International Herald Tribune, 12 September 2000, retreieved on 29 August 2008
  44. ^ Anti-WEF protests in Switzerland, January 2003
  45. ^ Anti-WEF protests in Switzerland, January 2006
  46. ^ Bono Teams Up With Amex, Gap For Product Red, Forbes, 21 January 2006, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  47. ^ The Davos Buzz, Forbes, 22 January 2008: 12:30PM ET, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  48. ^ Police arrest 100 Davos protesters, CNN, 28 January 2001: 8:24AM EST, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  49. ^ Tight security surrounds Davos, CNN, 25 January 2001: 4:37 AM EST, retrieved on 29 August 2008
  50. ^ Pigman p130
  51. ^ Open Forum (YouTube)
  52. ^ Davos: beanfeast of pomp and platitude, Times Online, 22 January 2006, retrieved on 29 August 2008

[edit] Reference books

  • Barbara Kellerman, Reinventing Leadership: Making the Connection Between Politics and Business, Published by SUNY Press, 1999, ISBN 0791440729, 268 pages.
  • David Bornstein, How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Published by Oxford University Press US, 2007, ISBN 0195334760, 358 pages.
  • David Rothkopf, Superclass: The global power elite and the world they are making, Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008, ISBN 0374272107, 400 pages
  • Geoffrey Allen Pigman, Global Institutions: The World Economic Forum – A multi-stakeholder approach to global governance, Published by Routledge, 2007, ISBN 978-0-415-70204-1, 175 pages.
  • Klaus M. Schwab and Hein Kroos, Moderne Unternehmensführung im Maschinenbau, Published by Verein Dt. Maschinenbau-Anst. e.V. ; Maschinenbau-Verl, 1971
  • Mike Moore, A World Without Walls: Freedom, Development, Free Trade and Global Governance, Published by Cambridge University Press, 2003, ISBN 0521827019, 292 pages.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Economic_Forum"
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