Davos 2024: Continued Conspiracy or Continued Cock-up?

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is again gathering in Davos, and whilst for many this will provide fuel for conspiracy theories about new world orders, the truth is more prosaic: it’s an old world order, seeking to dictate how that world should work and how it should be, whilst being utterly out of touch with both.

♪ “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” ♪

No, not Christmas – that’s just been and gone – but rather the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), when the world’s “foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society” come together to pursue their self-proclaimed mandate “to shape global, regional and industry agendas“.

Or, in other words, that wonderful time of year when an unelected and unaccountable club – funded primarily by big business – get together to pursue their self-proclaimed agenda of “improving the state of the world“…

…and we all get to learn how they think we should all live and work, whether:

• Moving to a “post-growth economy” where we have less…
• …but are nonetheless happy in owning nothing and through changing our diets.
• Championing cerebral monitoring implants that will lead to “a wonderful future where we can use brainwaves to fight crime, be more productive and find love“.
• Advocating for all business to use their ESG metrics (where those ESG metrics just so happen to be developed with, be auditable by and provide unfathomably large consulting opportunities for the consultancies that are core members: my colleague, Steve, has written about this as part of a more general piece on ESG).

Not satisfied with trying to decide our diets or advocating for brain monitoring, though, there then are the Orwellian-sounding initiatives like “The Great Reset” (which ostensibly sets out how the world “ought” to work post-COVID, but is vast in its scope).

Conspiracy or Cock-up?

It’s therefore perhaps somewhat understandable that conspiracy theories abound when it comes to the WEF.

It has to be said here that the WEF further doesn’t help itself when it comes to consistency:

• Emphases on consuming less (whilst switching to eat insects) and focusing on climate ring somewhat hollow when looking at the emissions from private jets flying WEF members to its meetings, for example.
• It’s also difficult to take instruction on gender equality from the WEF when its meetings are described as “a den of prostitution and predators” where business is booming for sex workers.

Still, I’m personally not of the school that sees the WEF as the malevolent cabal that secretly pulls the strings behind world events and trends.

I instead hold to the maxim attributed to Charles Krauthammer in discussing Washington politics: “…always choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning. Anything else gives them too much credit.”

And – when it comes to the WEF – there’s certainly an abundance that screams stupidity and incompetence…

…all flowing from a tired and fundamental misunderstanding about the world: that change is to be decided on, orchestrated by and driven by institutions top-down.

The Latest Cock-up

Having sat through (endured) this year’s Davos setup presentation a couple of days agao – where the central theme was introduced as “Rebuilding Trust” – I remain firmly convinced of all this.

Given what I’ve covered so far, if that referred to “rebuilding trust in the WEF”, that might be something both justified and novel.

But no, it is a more general “people are more divided and distrust each other more than ever before, but institutions and business can lead the way in rebuilding trust”, and we’re back with that tired and fundamental misunderstanding of the world.

This begins from the outset and with the founder of the WEF himself, Klaus Schwab, where he says in regard to this year’s Davos programme:

“We face a fractured world and growing societal divides, leading to pervasive uncertainty and pessimism. We have to rebuild trust in our future by moving beyond crisis management, looking at the root causes of the present problems, and building together a more promising future.”

The problems begin with “pervasive uncertainty” being said to be the result of a fractured world, when uncertainty – thanks to Complexity – is instead the fundamental nature of the world.

Get this wrong, as Schwab and the WEF do, and you then see problems to be solved rather than challenges to be managed…

…and what does Schwab say? That the WEF can look at “the root causes of the present problems” ahead of “building… a more promising future“.

At this point, we hit the the all-too-familiar and fatally-flawed reductionism that seeks to “solve” and control the world, and which lies behind all the failed default approaches that currently dominate.

Consistent with this, trust is then misunderstood as a “thing”, where – even if the nominalisation is accepted – there’s no way you can build it: it is an emergent property that can be encouraged and accelerated with the right guiding principles, but not something you can create.

But even if it was, are the proposed priorities and approaches really the “right” ones? That’s doubtful in the extreme.

For example, it’s certainly true that “biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse” are critical issues, and “investing in nature conservation and restoration” is laudable.

But beyond the WEF asserting it, on what grounds are these the principal issues when it comes to having lost trust and regaining it?

And even if those issues really are “a moral and economic imperative for us all” – which they may well be – why are they more so than, say, dealing with inflation, healthcare, the cost of living, etc?

And even setting all these questions aside, with faith in institutions of all kinds continuing to diminish – and despite the WEF saying that businesses are “the only entity seen as both competent and ethical” – is big business really where people are going to turn during a crisis of trust…?

With that in mind, I concede I permitted myself a wry smile when, in preparing to write this article, breaking news popped up to tell me that the CEO of Fujitsu – currently at the centre of a scandal that has outraged the British public – had just been pushed by a BBC reporter as to whether he would apologise for Fujitsu’s role in it.

Where was he? Davos, of course, for the WEF meeting.

In Conclusion

Unfortunately, everything the WEF says and does reflects it being the ultimate getting together of individuals who have typically inherited and not earned the roles of heads of institutions, both public and private.

And, whilst these institutions may have been relevant at some time in the past – propped-up since with fake-money-powered smoke and mirrors – they and their leaders are increasingly trying to dictate how things should be, whilst being ever more out of touch with reality and how it really works.

So, looking past the no doubt good intentions on the part of most individual delegates – perhaps even all (Schwab et al could still be sincere, even though sincerely wrong) – and looking past the beautiful alpine backdrop of Davos and the usual glossy presentation quality, we can confidently say that pretty much everything that Davos 2024 will come up with will be ineffectual in its stated aims.

Unfortunately, though, “in its stated aims” is key here…

…because the WEF and its initiatives absolutely do have an effect; it’s just that this effect is to:

• Prolong the dominance of misconceptions about the world.
• Continue to promulgate the WEF’s unwarranted apparent self-perception as high priests with occult knowledge to dispense in key areas.
• Heighten division between these self-proclaimed elites and the rest of society (who, unsurprisingly, don’t always take too kindly to having their futures mapped out for them by Schwab and his acolytes).
• Pile up waste and destroy value.
• Put obstacles in the way of true Value Management-led approaches that can actually deal with the issues the WEF claims it wants to address.

And so, whilst not a conspiracy, the cock-up nevertheless continues.

But despite the suspected crony capitalism and self interest, this all ultimately seems to spring primarily from a combination of ignorance and conformity.

So, even if – with its efforts towards policy, legislation, audits and associated penalties and sanctions – it is a forgiveness that the WEF may not afford, perhaps our best response is to say “forgive them; they know not what they do” (whilst also hoping their damage is limited and that they can be stopped soon, and advocating for effective alternatives!).