A guest post by Isobel Ching, CEO
At -10°C, queuing for the shuttle that will take me from the conference centre to the Digital Technologies of Tomorrow reception, I am surrounded by my peers. These are people like me: educated, powerful, enabled, with a certain commitment to bettering the world. And yet … This year some voices are missing. No Macron, no Trump … But the key issues we are here to solve remain: climate change, gender equality, income inequality.
This make me wonder, does Davos still matter? Is it still worth me trekking to Klosters in the late January snow? Should I just send Carmen or Buck next year?
I think we are all coming next year. And here’s why:
1) In-person matters more than ever
The world might be obsessed by digital, but in-person matters more than ever. The big consulting firms bring lots of data to WEF. One example is Accenture, who asserts that trust in digital has eroded. And they have a set of recommendations for rebuilding it.
I’m struck by how digitally focused their recommendations are nevertheless – especially as they’re bringing these to a face-to-face event. So whilst I agree with the diagnosis, I’d extend the proposed remedy by saying: focus on bringing your people together more.
This why I make time to get my team in the same room. To discuss, plan and review scenarios and to learn from different perspectives. You should too.
Which leads us to the next point, where I hope to see a change next year:
2) CEOs are not getting the data they want
PwC launched their 22nd annual CEO survey. I remember being interviewed for this, and wondering what the results would be. One of the most interesting charts in the report visualised the gap between data considered critical for decision making – versus comprehensiveness of the data currently received.
Part of this links to whether CEOs perceive their staff to have the right skills. In an age that is sometimes called the gig economy, I was encouraged to see that my fellow CEOs still invest in training and retraining. I encourage you to move team development from the “nice to have” to the “absolutely must” column of your to do list.
The report also quotes my friend and rival, Adidas CEO Kasper Rørsted – exploring the tension between following a core idea and getting fresh input:
“We look at all kinds of collaborative creation as valuable — not only within our company, but with external partners as well. We are clear about the borders of our brand, because the brand is sacred to us. But we also recognize that if we have only the inspiration and creativity of people within our own organization, we miss a lot of what’s going on in the marketplace. We articulate this point by saying that we need to be consumer-obsessed and to create the best product for the consumer. If that is your endgame, then you have to be able to confront sacred cows, and open yourself up to ideas that you might not have been open to in the past.”
3) Practice analytical thinking and complex problem solving
The insights above combined with the earlier WEF Future of Jobs report all point to the need for opportunities to practice analytical thinking and complex problem solving. Preferably in-person.
To that end I’ve asked my colleague Hugh Mann to draw up some ideas for conferences to attend in 2019. You should think about the same for your own development.
I’m also encouraged by the number of companies bringing me and my colleagues to their offices to help their teams develop and get in touch with new ways of thinking. We’ll be in the Leeds University Business School next…
Right … The shuttle is here … Got to go. I don’t want to get stuck next to the Zuck at dinner … he always tries to practice his terrible Mandarin on me.
Corporate Snakes and Career Ladders 