The virtue of the 15-minute meeting at Davos
Everyone you meet at Davos tends to ask you what are the things that have most struck you about the week. If, as David Rothkopf remarks, the World Economic Forum is “a factory where the conventional wisdom is manufactured”, that is how it is done.
So, in that spirit, here is my biggest “takeaway”: it is quite possible to have a useful meeting in 15 minutes. Read more
Will ‘Moocs’ bring down price of the Ivy League?
Will the rise of higher education in the US and elsewhere be curtailed by the expansion of Massive Open Online Courses (Moocs) that allow people to study digitally rather than attend lectures and classes? Some surprising people think so.
One of them is Rafael Reif, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He told a panel in Davos organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, that he didn’t think institutions such as MIT could keep charging $40,000 a year for tuition in the digital world. Read more
Greetings from Davos, the annual shindig of world leaders and chief executives in a valley by a Swiss mountain. Or perhaps the site of a global conspiracy of the power elite. Or perhaps the place where a Swiss professor imposes his quaint euro-views on “stakeholder capitalism” on US corporations. Or perhaps one giant cocktail party. Read more
Daniel Kahneman on double optimism of CEOs
My first task at Davos this year was a fun one: to interview Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel prize-winner and author of the best-selling book on the psychology of decision-making, Thinking, Fast and Slow.
One of the thoughts Mr Kahneman mooted in a lively hour of presentation and discussion was that chief executives, who are naturally optimistic people (for they would not be in that position if they weren’t), hold two sets of expectations in their heads. Read more
No badge is the new white badge at Davos
There is constant status anxiety at the World Economic Forum – am I at the best session, have I been invited to the best party, what colour badge am I wearing?
But what if the best Davos badge is not the white badge that admits you to all official events, but no badge at all? It is certainly cheaper than SFr20,000 for an official place at the forum. Read more
For the world’s financial elite, now might be a good time to be on a Swiss mountainside, protected by a cordon of armed police, and able to take one’s mind off things by skiing and popping into a private bank. Read more
Top 10 Davos surveys: what were CEOs thinking?
We know where many chief executives are now. In a snowy Alpine resort thinking big thoughts. But where were they over the past few months? Answer: locked in their offices, responding to multiple-choice questions, if the avalanche of Davos-pegged surveys is anything to go by.
I’ve ranted about such surveys before. Business leaders who participate tell me they find them tedious. They inevitably reach roughly the same conclusions (this year – surprise – “It’s gloomy out there”). Yet still they’re rolled out, and still they get written about (yes, by the FT, too).
The World Economic Forum – captive elite audience, massive press corps, low quotient of breaking news – is catnip to the pollsters who carry them out, and the companies that back them. So if you don’t want to risk a broken leg, snow-blindness and schmooze-fatigue by trekking to the Alps, here, as a public service, is my Top 10 of Davos surveys, ranked by number of respondents. I make no apologies for using the headlines from these polls’ press releases. Follow the links and dig into the data if you wish, but always remember: this isn’t science, it’s PR. Read more
Jasmine Whitbread in Davos: The female ‘tribe’
Davos women are gathered to listen to the likes of Arianna Huffington and the impressive Indonesian trade minister, Mari Pangestu, and to network amongst other women. Seemingly stuck at just 15 per cent of participants, the ‘tribe’ (as its referred to by Harvard prof Rosabeth Kanter)looks quite different all gathered together vs as a light sprinkling. As I’m sitting down and slightly wondering what I need to be doing here for children, most of the women at the table tell me they happen to be Save the Children supporters – it’s great to be able to say thank you.
The Google party is even cooler this year with wetsuit, snorkel-clad waiters serving sushi, and coloured pure oxygen tanks for those in need of a blast. Media moguls, politicos, all the young global leaders and even some royalty hit the dance floor. Read more
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John Gapper is an associate editor and the chief business commentator of the FT.
He has worked for the FT since 1987, covering labour relations, banking and the media. He is co-author, with Nicholas Denton, of 'All That Glitters', an account of the collapse of Barings in 1995.
Andrew Hill is an associate editor and the management editor of the FT. He is a former City editor, financial editor, comment and analysis editor, New York bureau chief, foreign news editor and correspondent in Brussels and Milan.
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