This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2013/feb/05/yorkshireman-davos-world-economic-forum
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| A Yorkshireman in Davos | A Yorkshireman in Davos |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| On the face of it, the World Economic Forum's annual meeting - to give Davos its full title - has little in common with northern England. The gathering of the world's top 2,500 business, government and civil society leaders is often portrayed as a flashy, talking shop, entirely at odds with plain-speaking Yorkshire or lets-get-things-done Lancashire. | On the face of it, the World Economic Forum's annual meeting - to give Davos its full title - has little in common with northern England. The gathering of the world's top 2,500 business, government and civil society leaders is often portrayed as a flashy, talking shop, entirely at odds with plain-speaking Yorkshire or lets-get-things-done Lancashire. |
| But at this year's Davos, things were different: I saw a good number of northern delegates, a friendly atmosphere, good debate, and a decent amount of deal-making. And a good old northern knees-up (with canapés thrown in, of course). Like many northern cities, to get to know Davos you have to look beyond the surface. The Swiss ski resort with a population of only 11,000 that becomes the centre of the universe every January is, in fact, a great leveller: you never know which CEO, Nobel Prize-winner or celebrity you'll bump into, but you can be sure that they'll be happy to chat, if only for a few minutes as they race from panel discussion with Bill Clinton to drinks reception with Kofi Annan. | But at this year's Davos, things were different: I saw a good number of northern delegates, a friendly atmosphere, good debate, and a decent amount of deal-making. And a good old northern knees-up (with canapés thrown in, of course). Like many northern cities, to get to know Davos you have to look beyond the surface. The Swiss ski resort with a population of only 11,000 that becomes the centre of the universe every January is, in fact, a great leveller: you never know which CEO, Nobel Prize-winner or celebrity you'll bump into, but you can be sure that they'll be happy to chat, if only for a few minutes as they race from panel discussion with Bill Clinton to drinks reception with Kofi Annan. |
| One of my passions as the son of a York takeaway owner is sustainable business and supporting local shops and community projects. So I was keen to use my time in Davos this year to speak to as many influentials as I could about it in the hope of coming back with some ideas and inspiration. | One of my passions as the son of a York takeaway owner is sustainable business and supporting local shops and community projects. So I was keen to use my time in Davos this year to speak to as many influentials as I could about it in the hope of coming back with some ideas and inspiration. |
| My efforts began early: I bumped into fellow Manchester United supporter, Stockport-born and Sheffield-educated economist Jim O'Neill at the airport. Apart from running Goldman Sachs Asset Management and being an all-round nice bloke, Jim is also chairman of Shine, a fantastic charity that runs after-school clubs and booster classes for disadvantaged kids, and launched a £1m project in Manchester last October to support 800 disadvantaged pupils in 32 primary schools over the next three years. | My efforts began early: I bumped into fellow Manchester United supporter, Stockport-born and Sheffield-educated economist Jim O'Neill at the airport. Apart from running Goldman Sachs Asset Management and being an all-round nice bloke, Jim is also chairman of Shine, a fantastic charity that runs after-school clubs and booster classes for disadvantaged kids, and launched a £1m project in Manchester last October to support 800 disadvantaged pupils in 32 primary schools over the next three years. |
| And on my first night in Davos, I bumped into PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi at the young global leader nightcap (most Davos "drinks receptions" are euphemistically styled "nightcaps") where we talked about her company's efforts to make brands like Quaker Oats, Tropicana and Walkers crisps more sustainable. But most of the conversation involved me telling her about what it was like to carry the London 2012 Olympic Torch in Bedale, and thanking her for supporting Magic Breakfast, the school breakfast charity I'm president of, which feeds 6,500 hungry every morning, including in Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Rotherham and Sheffield. | And on my first night in Davos, I bumped into PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi at the young global leader nightcap (most Davos "drinks receptions" are euphemistically styled "nightcaps") where we talked about her company's efforts to make brands like Quaker Oats, Tropicana and Walkers crisps more sustainable. But most of the conversation involved me telling her about what it was like to carry the London 2012 Olympic Torch in Bedale, and thanking her for supporting Magic Breakfast, the school breakfast charity I'm president of, which feeds 6,500 hungry every morning, including in Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Rotherham and Sheffield. |
| If Davos is known for anything, it a good chin-wag. From seeing UK chancellor (and Cheshire MP) George Osborne being interviewed about the effectiveness of Britain's economic strategy and David Cameron's EU referendum speech to a panel on fighting unemployment with trade unionists from around the world, debates and discussions are not hard to find. | If Davos is known for anything, it a good chin-wag. From seeing UK chancellor (and Cheshire MP) George Osborne being interviewed about the effectiveness of Britain's economic strategy and David Cameron's EU referendum speech to a panel on fighting unemployment with trade unionists from around the world, debates and discussions are not hard to find. |
| I was (probably) the only northerner however to have organised my own Davos panel session this year. Under the theme "East v West: Re-Shaping the World" I brought together Stephen King, chief economist at HSBC, Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist, Martin Wolf from the FT and Dr Xiang Biang, dean of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, one of Asia's top business schools, to talk about some of the big economic and political trends that are not only affecting the world, but impacting our part of the world. For anyone who that thinks globalisation, the eastward shift in capital, and the Eurozone crisis don't affect whether Rochdale's high street prospers, investment comes to Leeds or poverty rises in Sheffield, think again. | I was (probably) the only northerner however to have organised my own Davos panel session this year. Under the theme "East v West: Re-Shaping the World" I brought together Stephen King, chief economist at HSBC, Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist, Martin Wolf from the FT and Dr Xiang Biang, dean of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, one of Asia's top business schools, to talk about some of the big economic and political trends that are not only affecting the world, but impacting our part of the world. For anyone who that thinks globalisation, the eastward shift in capital, and the Eurozone crisis don't affect whether Rochdale's high street prospers, investment comes to Leeds or poverty rises in Sheffield, think again. |
| It was good to see a northern contingent in the Swiss mountains too. My favourites were Stoke-born Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins, who I first met in Pittsburgh last year for the One Young World summit for young business and community leaders, and Hull-born Richard Gillies, who serves on the board of Marks & Spencer and leads its "Plan A" project, the poster-child of high street sustainability. Jenkins hosted a well-attended breakfast on reducing youth unemployment, while I bumped into the good-humoured Gillies at Davos' many parties, including the McKinsey nightcap, now unchallenged as the best bash following the Google party's retirement (which is a shame, as last year Google had a springy dancefloor that generated energy from partygoers' dancing. Surely a northern invention). | It was good to see a northern contingent in the Swiss mountains too. My favourites were Stoke-born Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins, who I first met in Pittsburgh last year for the One Young World summit for young business and community leaders, and Hull-born Richard Gillies, who serves on the board of Marks & Spencer and leads its "Plan A" project, the poster-child of high street sustainability. Jenkins hosted a well-attended breakfast on reducing youth unemployment, while I bumped into the good-humoured Gillies at Davos' many parties, including the McKinsey nightcap, now unchallenged as the best bash following the Google party's retirement (which is a shame, as last year Google had a springy dancefloor that generated energy from partygoers' dancing. Surely a northern invention). |
| Milton Friedman famously said "the business of business is business". But at this year's Davos, amid quiet but growing confidence that the economy was finally turning a corner, it was clear that sustainable business, not just successful business, was high on the agenda. And I left Davos optimistic and excited about the year ahead: as the economy recovers, everything I experienced there suggests that the individuals and companies best placed to do well in the new world, where media scrutiny and consumers expectations are sky high, will be those with solid northern values: pay your workers properly; charge your customers a fair price; look out for the environment and local communities; and have a clear social purpose beyond simply profit. | Milton Friedman famously said "the business of business is business". But at this year's Davos, amid quiet but growing confidence that the economy was finally turning a corner, it was clear that sustainable business, not just successful business, was high on the agenda. And I left Davos optimistic and excited about the year ahead: as the economy recovers, everything I experienced there suggests that the individuals and companies best placed to do well in the new world, where media scrutiny and consumers expectations are sky high, will be those with solid northern values: pay your workers properly; charge your customers a fair price; look out for the environment and local communities; and have a clear social purpose beyond simply profit. |
| Whilst it's a racing certainty that a great deal of commercial business will have been done in Davos (hopefully in line with those northern values), the best business of the week was surely done by Centrica Chairman Sir Roger Carr, who persuaded Boris Johnson to speak at his lunch for British business leaders in exchange for sending round his British Gas engineers to fix the mayor's boiler and this avoid domestic strife. Any northerner would have been proud of that Davos deal. | Whilst it's a racing certainty that a great deal of commercial business will have been done in Davos (hopefully in line with those northern values), the best business of the week was surely done by Centrica Chairman Sir Roger Carr, who persuaded Boris Johnson to speak at his lunch for British business leaders in exchange for sending round his British Gas engineers to fix the mayor's boiler and this avoid domestic strife. Any northerner would have been proud of that Davos deal. |
| Follow Alan on Twitter: @AlanMakUK | Follow Alan on Twitter: @AlanMakUK |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. | |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. Enter your email address to subscribe. |