Olivier Fleurot CEO, MSLGROUP While much at Davos this year remained as it has been since the event’s inception in 1971 (the snow, the networking opportunities, the welcoming remarks of WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab), there were also a number of significant evolutions: Africa was for once discussed as a continent of potential growth and less as a source of strife, despite the war in Mali. Women spoke out and drew support: represented by Christine Lagarde of the IMF, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and Drew Faust, president of Harvard University, they challenged their male peers to do much more for women's empowerment in politics and business. And Young Global Leaders – the WEF’s next-generation leadership community that is mission-led and principle driven - gamely showed “old” leaders new ways to create shared value. Hard as it is to distill all of the activity, information, opinions, policy and commentary down to a few key themes, here in ‘Concentrated Davos’, we have tried to capture the major takeaways for the communications industry. What follows are five meta-themes that emerged from a sea of important movements at Davos 2013. Themes that have already and will continue to shape our company, our industry and business more generally. I hope you enjoy the read.
PURPOSE: A NEW BIG DOG Every few years an important idea appears, fully formed in the consciousness of leaders in both business and government. Many of us can remember the waves of clarity that in recent years washed over these ranks on the topics of Execution, Brand, Efficiency through Technology and others. This year there was no escaping the tidal wave of insight that carried the concept of “Purpose” into the hearts and minds of Davos delegates, and indeed any of us paying attention. Certainly the prevalence of big bosses at events covering everything from tackling youth unemployment to "de-risking Africa" was a clear demonstration that they recognize they have to offer the public a more compelling raison d'être than profit maximization alone. With broad agreement at Davos that governments alone cannot solve world problems such as climate
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change, resource scarcity and food shortages, it was clear that companies must step up to the plate and play their role. What it means to be a good corporate citizen has evolved from Green (environment) and Blue (sustainability) to what at MSLGROUP we call PurPle (Purpose and People). The successful companies and brands of tomorrow will be the ones that drive more rapid and meaningful change in society and business through the creation of shared value, and a shared purpose in society. The strategic communication industry has a powerful role to play here, helping leaders collaborate with all stakeholders to identify a purpose that is shared - that generates performance because staff truly believe in it - and that by association can help unearth a company’s True North.
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FIVE META THEMES SHAPING GLOBAL BUSINESS TODAY
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A TRANSPARENT MAGIC MOUNTAIN We’ve heard a lot of talk about how Davos has lost its aura of elite privacy. Paragraph after paragraph of media coverage focused on the feeling of real-time sharing, that this isolationist bubble had been burst and now the world participates in Davos in real-time, alongside the Masters of the Universe themselves. Once upon a time, the major sessions could only be covered by the press. Fast forward to today when almost every delegate is tweeting from every session (despite the WEF’s suggestion that delegates abide by Chatham House Rules). As a result, one industry commentator went so far as to jokingly label Davos the ‘World Economic Fishbowl’. To a certain extent there is truth in this observation. Certainly when it came to the official sessions, there was sense of “being there” in real time if you were tracking the right
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twitter feeds. In many ways, we are of course seeing the beginnings of a new era, where the conversation happens all at once, vertically and horizontally, an era where authenticity rules the day and the relationship between leader and larger audience is much less filtered. That said, it remains true that the official sessions are just a small part of Davos. It is thus probably premature to imagine that all those scanning the web and engaging on social media around the WEF were actually now part of the more private sessions behind closed doors. Taking a peek, yes. True participation? Not quite yet.
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EMERGING MARKETS BUZZ Amidst a somewhat more upbeat mood in Davos this year – thanks to the U.S. elections and fiscal cliff now being behind us, Chinese political transition looking relatively smooth, and a more robust Euro – panels on the potential of the world’s emerging economies certainly created buzz and excitement. In one session, panelists claimed that by 2020, emerging economies will account for two-thirds of global economic growth. A riveting session on China’s global agenda pointed out that when the nation becomes the biggest economy in the world, its per capita income will still be only a quarter of that in the U.S. - a reminder for developed marketbased companies looking to maximize growth in the Middle Kingdom that ‘frugal innovation’ and affordable products will play important roles in their future success. Meanwhile, for those of us with Chinese or Indian multinational
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clients, many of whom such as Tata, Huawei and Haier hold respectable places in the rankings of the most innovative companies worldwide, the role we can play in communicating these fast-growing economies’ world-class know-how to global consumers is clear. Latin America is seeing an economic renaissance in Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Panama and Peru and while Brazil’s economy has somewhat slowed, the World Cup and Olympics will create an exciting spike for our industry there. And then there’s Africa, the world’s second fastest growing economy today. With an average 5 percent growth rate that Davos delegates expect to improve in the coming decade as investment deepens, we can all imagine a new middle class of African consumers emerging. The race for future market share is already well underway.
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DROWNING IN DATA With technology driving greater organisational change than any other force today – even more than the economy according to a global IBM survey of CEOs – it shouldn’t come as a surprise that technospeak infused every topic being discussed in Davos this year. Sessions on philanthropy, agriculture, social unrest, media and the economy were each laced with references to new digital platforms, products and technological innovations. But while technology – and its by-product, masses of data - have created an amazing ability to connect and engage with individuals, it was widely agreed that the overwhelming majority of organisations are battling to keep up with let alone maximize the potential of today’s new, transformational communications tools. While capturing data is easy, it is a company’s ability to understand data about consumers, at a human level, that is increasingly considered
essential by business leaders at Davos. Imagine: Last year alone we created 1.8 trillion GB of data, data collected by billions of devices recording trillions of transactions. While advances in technology today enable analytics that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago – with new insights being gleaned from previously unknowable connections between dispersed bits of information - the reality is that most companies are far from ready to make sense of it all. It is of course only those who know how to mine this data, make sense of it and tell a resulting story that resonates with audiences - and engages them via horizontal conversations - that will show real, sustainable growth moving forward.
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WOMEN AT THE TOP Davos reflects a global community in which women are still struggling to become leaders: 17 percent of delegates at Davos this year were women (up from 9 percent in 2002). In reality, the WEF must be congratulated for pushing the envelope and setting a one-womanin-five quota for delegates among strategic business partners. Despite the relatively low numbers, this year in particular at Davos you could not help but be struck by the presence of deeply talented senior women who took centre stage to call for greater equality. “We have to dare the difference and we have to speak about it,” International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde boldly stated at the session on Women in Economic Decision Making. A number of delegates and panelists talked about the need for CEOs to ‘believe in, not pay lip service’ to the discussions around women’s empowerment in the
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workplace, while others debated what a delegate from the France based INSEAD business school described as the “cliff at the midcareer level” - arguably the biggest barrier to progress in getting women to the top of organizations. It was perhaps never more evident than at Davos 2013, that the communications industry - just like the rest of the business world - needs to continue to improve on how it empowers its best and brightest women to lead. Growing the pipeline of women in management roles is a critical part of having the talent our business needs, to be able to provide the valuable, trusted advice our clients ask for.
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Global headquarters: 9 Rue Feydeau, Paris 75002, France If you would like to find out more about how we can help your organisation or brand, email bob.bejan@mslgroup.com