Until humans stop profiteering from war and promoting dissension, we will never experience true co-operation, peace and economic prosperity.
As the world’s largest and most influential global networking participants gather at Davos for the 2023 World Economic Forum next week, I think back to Summer Davos last year and its theme of “History at a Turning Point”.
One thing we all agreed on, and still do, is that our approach to the world before and after Covid has changed for ever.
Our planet has experienced the same challenges for many years, and the recent pandemic only served to enhance what a predicament we are in, highlighting the stark disparity between those that have and those who do not, and the need for all people to be on the same page when it comes to saving this planet we call home.
History is indeed at a turning point.
We can choose to continue on the same destructive path of rampant consumerism, or we can responsibly come together to fix our future.
Underlining where we find ourselves at present, this year’s theme for the Davos collective is “Co-operation in a Fragmented World”.
The challenges we face – food insecurity; climate change; and the need to generate clean energy, increase access to the Internet, and ensure online data protection – have been discussed and debated ad nauseam.
For me, therefore, this year is not only about clear and concise dialogue about how we are going to solve a series of crises that are threatening our very existence, but about action – if we truly are to have a hope of securing a sustainable future for tomorrow’s generations.
What is needed is a radical rethink about what our collective future looks like. At present, it is divided, and those divisions themselves are growing and forever polarising.
And, as members of our society become separated from one another, there is a greater opportunity for war and dissension to infiltrate, from which there will always be only a few who will benefit.
This dystopian view of the world is in fact our current reality. Yet deep down I do believe that most of us want that mythical utopia where we all – no matter our financial standing – have secure shelter and nourishing sustenance.
To get there, there is no single answer, but a key element will be a new understanding that today’s profits and one man’s dominion over another at the expense of tomorrow’s people and planet are a thing of the past.
As a former chairman of the WEF Global Growth Companies advisory board and the vice-chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals, I have been privileged to be exposed to some of the greatest minds and hearts this world currently has.
The common denominator is a true desire to bring about global economic prosperity, as well as the promotion of peace and a more equitable society for all.
As the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, Professor Klaus Schwab and the WEF’s trustees have noted that it will take co-operation, collaboration and partnership to realise our common goal.
However, for me the new public-private partnership matrix must include communities. Without preaching, I believe there is a disjunction between what happens in the boardroom and around the negotiation table and what is happening in people’s homes and everyday lives. There’s a widening disconnection.
To reconnect with one another to create this cohesive pulling together to save the planet will require a fresh perspective and a mind reset.
Herein lies the WEF’s call to action for “co-operation in our fragmented world”, and I for one am all for it.
So we need to drop the walls and remove the boundaries that keep us repeating the same mistakes we never seem to learn from. Business needs to be open to new ways of working, and governments must be a true reflection of their people’s needs, as well as those of the environment.
As individuals, we can each start to make small changes in our lives – a baby usually crawls before it walks and runs. With each small change, we can create a chain reaction which together has momentum and push for a better world.
Davos, with its global community of leaders from business and civil society, as well as government heads and academics and tomorrow’s bright minds, therefore represents a unique opportunity for new thinking and bold action.
We are beyond history’s turning point, and there is no going back. We can only move forward –together.
Dr Iqbal Survé, chairman of the Sekunjalo Group, has been a WEF member since 2007 and is a Davos veteran, with 2023 being his 12th event.
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