This year international
While listening I wrote down a few things that got my attention - these impressions are what I want to share with you today, after having done some additional research.
The following eight key areas were the focus of the 2014 World Economic Forum in Davos.
According to the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, youth unemployment is Europe's "single biggest crisis". Why? Because 1 in 4 youth are unemployed. That's a scary number!
Noticeable trends towards solving this problem are the transition back to vocational studies, increased opportunities to work from home and entrepreneurism. Literacy is key to end extreme income divide and poverty.
The major players to help tackle this issue are business, government and civil society - or the Golden Triangle.
When it comes to economic concerns, the BRICs are not growing as much and as fast as expected. Furthermore, the phenomenon of the 'shifting middle' is becoming more prominent - the US and the UK have a squeezed middle with middle class down by 9% since 1999. In Africa and Asia, on the other hand, the middle class is growing.
Key for future growth are the so called creative economies that harness the ideas of individuals and entrepreneurship. An example is South Korea and its Government 3.0 that puts much emphasis on technology and green energy.
Another key area here is the 'motivation nation' based on a smaller size to allow greater collaboration and education.
A term that stuck in my mind here is 'the coopetition challenge' (loving that world play between cooperation and competition). It encompasses the belief that Europe, the US and China are required to cooperate to guarantee world peace and a healthy global economy with promise for integration.
The gender gap when it comes to wages, corporate roles, societal roles etc. is still huge.
The obvious underrepresentation of women in Davos this year became one of the key agenda topics and areas to shape in the future.
Some facts:
At the WEF women's leadership dinner it was discussed how important it is for women to continue to speak up and to start coaching men. Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg (whom I am a big fan of) said: "It is good to see women on the agenda at Davos but our goal is to get them off." I love that!
Rick Goings, CEO of Tupperware, explained that it is necessary to transfer women from PR, HR and IR to sales and marketing. Three key areas will help allow that: letting women to work more from home, providing micro-financing for women, and helping women locally.
Corporations will so have to find ways to develop collaborative leadership that combines the stronger and the softer side of power.
Barri Rafferty seems hopeful. In an article for CNBC she later said that the women-focused sessions this year were more greatly attended by men and men were on every panel. She also stated that beginning to talk about these issues is a first step towards making a change.
There is much we can do about climate control: Data is there, resources too. Governments, businesses and societies need to get to action. But there's no clear CTA...
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of UNFCCC said that "we are breathing climate change every time we take a breath". The worst part: We are getting used to it!
Sustainability is a term with many definitions and so is still not well understood among the masses. However, at its very core sustainability is about securing a happy and fruitful future, a future of possibilities for the next generations.
The role of business here is undeniable. This was also a core theme in Davos with shared value becoming a much talked about issue, because values make an organisation what it is. Even the findings of the Edelman Trust Barometer 2014 that was released a week after the WEF conclude that businesses now have a "license to lead" by being a force for good and striking the balance between economic, environmental and societal aspects.
The challenge though is to communicate those efforts and to actually engage people to embrace sustainable behaviour. Another piece by Barri Rafferty sheds some insights how to do that here.
This is indeed a major issue. As I noted in a previous post, personal well-being is the new black. I made further reference to the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle, including it as a key trait of the future PR pro.
Health is going to be pervasive in everything we do. Here again, it is required to link all players: government, business, society.
With big data becoming even bigger serious information security risks arise: about food, about personal data, about cyber information etc. Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, described this whole issue of security as rather "murky" because "people don't know what information is being collected and how it's being used." The cloud and big data can so be a very real threat with transparency becoming a prime concern for corporations.
One way to establish more security when it comes to money in our hyper-connected world is to digitise payments or to offer pre-paid cards that loan cash. This would be great for charity, but also against corruption.
Protecting data is the new security force.
For the very first time the topic of happiness was introduced at the WEF with mindfulness becoming the new Davos-word.
Happiness is now an economic indicator because the happier society is, the more successful it is. And so meditation, stress reduction, mindfulness, or simply individual well-being is key for a healthy society and a healthy economy.
Arianna Huffington, CEO of the Huffington Post, said: “Happiness is a learned skill and connected with health”, and I completely agree with her because I believe that happiness is a personal choice as it is based on the decisions we make in our lives.
The eight key WEF areas were summarised by Barri Rafferty in this very neat infographic:
(Click on the infographic for a larger view)
Image from @davos Twitter feed