Business Report
THE World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting is currently underway in Davos, Switzerland bringing together global leaders of industry, capital and politics.
We sat down with WEF veteran and global business leader Dr Iqbal Survé to give us his insights about what to look out for at WEF.
Survé started his WEF journey in 2007 and was the first chairman of the Global Growth Companies Advisory Board. He served in numerous capacities including on the Stewardship Council of Technology and Media and the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals.
We asked Survé what he believed were some of the key factors related to WEF and this is what he had to say:
Level of black-owned business from South Africa
“For me, I think one of the sad things about that is that the participants of the World Economic Forum from South Africa are almost exclusively the establishment's corporations. You have your banks, you have your mining houses, you have your very large corporations, but you have almost no black businesses.I think that's quite sad because as a company, as a country, we then are not seen to be representing our country in relation to other African countries,” said Survé.
Networking
“WEF is a networking experience, so it's speed dating for business. So you see everyone you want to see in the five days that you are there and don't have to travel to different countries to see them and them to you. So you can do your speed dating meetings and get a lot done. If you are organised, it's a brilliant opportunity to speed date for business and you know, to find each other again in terms of your business relationships and to look at new business opportunities,” said Survé.
Global Trends
“WEF provides a great opportunity for us to continue understanding the trends in the world. To know, where is the global economy going, where's investment going? I mean, this is the preeminent grouping of the world, whether we like it or don't like it. This is where the capital sits. This is the elite, of course. And many people criticise that elite but it depends on what you make of it. You can either use wealth to uplift people or you can use it as a weapon,” said Survé.
Common Interest Groupings
“Besides learning about what the trends are in the world and where it's going. The World Economic Forum pulls together groupings. I sat on a number of these groupings in ICT in technology, technology pioneers in the areas of emerging markets, media, etc. And they are fantastic because they are the think tanks and the events should become the Global Agenda Council. What they do is they set the agenda for a particular sector in the world for the next year. So we have an understanding of where the world is going in those sectors,” said Survé.