Following the global upheaval of COVID-19, the continuing far-reaching effects of the war in Ukraine, and mounting climate-change related problems, the coming 12 months will be marked by unpredictability, further elevating the need for agile decision-making and responses.
Business leaders not only have to manage the day-to-day challenges and risks to operations in their industry, but also navigate the fall-out from several on-going crises – cost-of-living crunch, global economic slowdown, soaring energy prices and climate disasters. And these are just the headline challenges. Shifting business models post-pandemic, as well as changing customer preferences and expectations add to the strategic demands.
At the Forum, our work is, as it has been throughout our 53-year history, about impact. We strive to effect change to help improve the state of the world through all that we do. This has involved thousands of tangible projects and collaborations; breakthroughs that brought into being the likes of GAVI, the vaccine alliance; and many historic initiatives, including the Davos Declaration signed in 1988 by Greece and Turkey, which brought the two countries back from the brink of war.
“Impact” is a frequently-used term. Beyond dictionary definitions and corporate theories, like business impact analysis, is it possible to distil the essence of impact? Looking at the Forum’s work and successes, I would say that it is and that there are several overriding tenets.
Ambition to action
At least two transformational changes have occurred in the past few years: we suddenly face multiple challenges that can’t be deprioritized. They all require our immediate, simultaneous attention. And we have come to realize that many of the challenges humanity faces are interrelated, and as such, often global. At the Forum we are ambitious in our goals, which we convert into action through our work with stakeholders.
