The Davos Agenda

From 25 January the hotels, meeting rooms, bars, restaurants, and most remaining nooks and crannies in the small Swiss town of Davos will be filled with leaders of all descriptions from around the world joining the great annual debate on the state of the world otherwise known as the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting.

The theme for the 2012 meeting is “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models”.  “The necessary conceptual models do not exist from which to develop a systemic understanding of the great transformations taking place now and in the future,” says the WEF’s Klaus Schwab. “It is hubris to frame this transition as a global management problem of integrating people, systems and technologies.  It is an indisputable leadership challenge that ultimately requires new models, bold ideas and personal courage to ensure that this century improves the human condition rather than capping its potential.”

Taking part in the debates during Davos will be London Business School’s Sir Andrew Likierman, Costas Markides and Francesca Cornelli and Lynda Gratton.  They will be rubbing shoulders with the usual array of celebrities, politicians, artists and scientists.  Those speaking include Murray Gell-Mann the Nobel laureate physicist; the deep sea diver Sylvia Earle; champion of emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman; Tom Friedman, author of The World is Flat; Harvard’s Michael Porter and many more.

An alternative agenda


But what should be on the agenda as the greatest minds and the most influential leaders sit down to debate?  “If I had to pick one topic, it would be growth,” says London Business School professor Rajesh Chandy. “The particular questions around growth would be different for developed and developing countries, however. For developed countries, the question is: How can we create substantial growth again? For developing countries, the question is: How can we create growth in a way that benefits as many of our people as possible?”

Apple wrestles with its 'China problem'

CUPERTINO, Calif. –  Apple began last week by basking in record quarterly profits, but then ended the week in a public relations retreat after reports of exploited workers in factories in China assembling its hot-selling iPads and iPhones.

For now, the media spotlight is on Apple and its Taiwanese contract supplier Foxconn. But China's leaders will also be shifting uncomfortably as the gaze of the international media turns to the harsh underbelly of its manufacturing economy.

Behind China's remarkable economic progress toil an estimated 120 million migrant workers, typically living and working in austere factory complexes.

Two decades into China's industrial transformation, questions are being asked about how much responsibility authorities shoulder for its hukou (household registration) system that effectively institutionalizes migrant workers as second-class citizens in their own country.

But for now, it is Apple in the firing line. The New York Times ignited media interest after a story on unsafe working conditions, as well as seven-hour days and cramped dormitories at Apple's Foxconn supplier in China.

The public relations drubbing was ramped up another degree by Jon Stewart's Comedy Central, with a disturbing "Fear Factory" satire on the lot of the workers behind Apple's prodigious profits.

The problem for Apple is that beneath the humor and the shock headlines, there is enough truth about worker conditions in mainland Chinese factories to offend many of its customers and ultimately damage its premium brand.

10 elements of entrepreneurship

01 Only 39% of entrepreneurial businesses have a ‘very good idea’ of their competitors’ business.
-- Deloitte Entrepreneurship UK 2009 Report


02 A latent pool of hidden innovators (over 50s, ethnic minorities, the disabled) could potentially add £15 billion to the UK economy by 2012 if the right conditions were created.
-- Cass Business School Centre for New Technologies, Innovation and Entrepreneurship.


03 There are around 4.8 million private sector enterprises in the UK, employing 22.8 million people with an estimated combined annual turnover of £3,200 billion.
-- http://stats.bis.gov.uk/ed/sme/Stats_Press_release_2009.pdf


04Small and medium-sized enterprises together account for 99.9% of all UK enterprises, 59.8% of private sector employment and 49% of private sector turnover.
-- http://stats.bis.gov.uk/ed/sme/Stats_Press_release_2009.pdf

The Age of the Entrepreneur

Richard Downs is founder and chief executive of the ski, cruise and family holiday company, Iglu.com. Richard graduated from London Business School in 1998.

Small is bountiful: I had the idea for Iglu back in 1998. We have been in existence for over a decade and have grown but we are still small and nimble in the way we think. By nature we are very anti-corporate. We are still nonbureaucratic and not meeting oriented even though we now have 120 people.

Have faith: For an entrepreneur, belief is seven-tenths of the job.

Additional funding: At the end of 2009 Matrix Private Equity Partners invested £4.3 million in Iglu.com. This bought them a 35 per cent stake. This enabled us to buy out two of the initial institutional investors and gave us a much clearer run into the future. Now we are entirely debt free.

Patience: It has taken much longer than I ever thought it would to reach this stage. But, in other ways we totally under-estimated where we would be in 2011. After all, when we started out there was no Google or Facebook. The world has changed. Now online commerce is bigger than the UK construction industry. Even the government now appreciates the importance of online commerce as a sector.

The glass?: Entrepreneurs are optimistic by nature. They want to change things. An education: My previous experience was all about finance. What I have learned is the importance of people. You have to get the right people and then keep them motivated. It can be highly destructive if you get it wrong. You really need a complementary combination of skills. It was one thing we took for granted early on in the businesses’ development.

Toddling: The other lesson I have learned is not to run before you can walk. We expanded into France and elsewhere without having the right people.

Growing up: Businesses and entrepreneurs grow up. Your working style and the balance of what you and the business do evolves. The first two or three years are totally full on. But that’s not sustainable. You can only ignore your friends and family for so long! You eventually need to get things in balance so you can recognise when you’re near the edge and then do something about it. I found that taking a holiday can allow other people to grow.