Governance
Europe’s moment of truth
Ann Mettler explains why it’s time for European leaders to speak the truth about the crisis
“Nothing beats the truth.” These were the passionate words of Enda Kenny, Prime Minister of Ireland, when asked last week about the spring European Council on 14-15 March. He was talking about a moment of reckoning for the continent’s leaders as they confront increasingly hostile electorates – most recently exhibited in Italy, where voters sent a clear signal against austerity.
Now it’s payback time for the years – even decades – of denial, of make-believe that the prosperity that Europe enjoyed...
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March 13, 2013
It’s the economy, stupid
Here at Davos we participated in a fantastic scenario planning workshop with Schwab Social Entrepreneurs and business partners including Boston Consulting Group, Credit Suisse and Siemens. One of the scenarios we examined was that of a ‘Positive Economy’ when, by 2030, true environmental and social costs and benefits are included in national and company accounts. This is the big prize for sustainable development – when we can harness market forces and align them for everyone’s benefit to tackle the major challenges we face such as climate change and political insecurity caused by...
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January 23, 2013
New models for NGOs in the 21st century
“Accountability” is a buzz word for the 21st century. It is controversial and the source of much debate. While accountability was originally thrust upon businesses by civil society organizations, today the tables may be turning. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are now subject to the same scrutiny as businesses vis-à-vis their integrity, independence and impact.
Estimated to have a turnover of more than US$ 1 trillion globally and as much as 15% of GDP in North America and Western Europe, it is clear that NGOs are a major force to be reckoned with. Today, NGOs are crucial players in...
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January 15, 2013
How can we curb corruption in supply chains?
In a series of blog posts curated by the World Economic Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI), a number of leading voices will present their perspectives on anti-corruption in the run-up to World Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December. In the following post, Elaine Dezenski, Senior Director and Head of PACI, World Economic Forum, underlines the risks of entrenched corruption.
As this week’s series of blog posts has reinforced, much remains to be done before we achieve a transparent and level playing field for global business, especially in new and emerging markets. The lack of...
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December 7, 2012
Perceptions of corruption in emerging economies persist
Corruption is the world’s most talked about global problem according to a survey commissioned by the BBC. It’s up there with other seemingly intractable problems like poverty and unemployment.
Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2012 – which measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 176 countries and territories – is not likely to put an end to discussions on the topic. The index has become an essential tool for policy-makers, activists and the many businesses that use it to develop their anti-corruption risk management systems.
What is noteworthy...
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December 7, 2012
How can corporations dispel the black cloud of corruption?
In a series of blog posts curated by the World Economic Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI), a number of leading voices will present their perspectives on anti-corruption in the run-up to World Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December. In the following post, Indraneel Ganguli, Senior Vice-President Marketing and Communications of Mahindra Satyam, takes a view on emerging markets from the company’s personal experience
Corruption hangs like a black cloud over the world we live in and growing economies are becoming increasingly aware of its debilitating effects on growth,...
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December 6, 2012
Join the global fight against corruption
Corruption – the abuse of power for private gain – distorts markets and stifles economic growth. It debases democracy and leads to lawlessness and societal breakdown. Corruption is a global scourge that has to be tackled, but it must be tackled collectively. Governments, businesses and citizens all have to work together to fight this most intractable of problems. And they are.
The World Economic Forum set up the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) in 2004. Since then, PACI’s Principles for Countering Bribery have received commitment from CEOs from almost 150 companies with an...
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December 6, 2012
All on board
Board management isn’t what most not-for-profit leaders would describe as scintillating work. At least, I wouldn’t. As a social entrepreneur working to grow my organization, I’ve always had enough to think about without worrying about board bureaucracy. Strategy development, service and process design, branding and outreach, finances and our long-run sustainability, not to mention helping the summer intern who has no housing, leaking plumbing in the office and the students – these are my priority concerns. There’s so much need and so little time.
I generally thought of my...
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December 5, 2012
How can transparency help a business grow?
In a series of blog posts curated by the World Economic Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI), a number of leading voices will present their perspectives on anti-corruption in the run-up to World Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December. In the following post, Mark Schlageter, Managing Director, GRC, Thomson Reuters, highlights the competitive advantage of ethical business
Many Organizations Are Looking beyond Their Traditional Markets for Sustainable Growth
The rewards for pursuing growth in emerging markets can be substantial and quick. Many organizations searching for...
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December 5, 2012
Can B2B lead the fight against corruption?
In a series of blog posts curated by the World Economic Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI), a number of leading voices will present their perspectives on anti-corruption in the run-up to World Anti-Corruption Day on 9 December. In the following post, Sachin Taparia, Chairman and Managing Director, New Venture in Social Transformation and Member of the Advisory Board, TVS & Sons Limited, calls for Indian business to lead by example.
Corporate India today bears a new look vis-à-vis that of a few decades ago. We now have a sizeable number of companies with revenues...
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December 4, 2012
Modernizing Global Governance
Rio+20′s clearest outcome is that civil society and major parts of the private sector are up for the challenges of the 21st century but government is not.In our work for the UN and the Government of Brazil on the Rio+20 Dialogues, we saw consensus on policy priorities for achieving sustainable economic growth, fighting poverty, advancing social equity, and ensuring environmental protection from citizens in countries with low and high Human Development Index (HDI) scores. These include: Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies Restoring deforested and degraded lands Implementing the...
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June 28, 2012
Behind all good leadership is good governance
Twenty-first century mainstream culture is infatuated with the idea and the practice of leadership. We love to dissect a president’s popularity ratings, to analyse how a CEO turned around a floundering company into a Fortune 500 company, or how an athletic coach shapes an underperforming team into a world champion.It is common wisdom that behind every leader are a team that executes the vision and many followers who support the leader’s work. Yet, we rarely talk about the accountability mechanisms that make sure the leadership is on the right course. Any leader and all teams, organizations...
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June 22, 2012
Five things the G20 should do to fight corruption
The social and economic impact of corruption is massive. It distorts competition, deters investment and above all increases the cost of goods and services. Five percent of global GDP (approximately US$ 3 trillion) is lost to corruption each year. The amount of total bribes paid annually is conservatively estimated to be US$ 1 trillion worldwide. As a comparison, the GDP of Mexico – the first Latin American country to host the G20 summit, in Los Cabos – in 2011 was US$ 1.185 trillion (official exchange rate).In the fight against these illicit practices, the private sector has a key role to...
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June 18, 2012
The G20 needs to become the M20
Climate change, youth unemployment, pervasive corruption, these are problems with multiple causes and no single solution. They are not caused by governments alone, and they cannot be solved by governments alone. The G20 process as it is currently structured is well intentioned but cannot be effective at addressing global issues because it does not formally take into account all the voices, all the stakeholders that need to be heard.In the past, global institutions such as the United Nations were structured to solve issues that involved state-to-state relationships. Governments start wars and...
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June 15, 2012
The role of government in a crowdsourcing world
When the SpaceX Dragon Capsule touched down last week in the Pacific Ocean after its successful unmanned mission to the International Space Station, it brought back with it from near orbit an increasingly undeniable truth: governments are losing their monopoly over managing certain complex tasks.Indeed, as access to information increases and the cost of collaboration decreases, so too does our dependency on governments to manage complexity. As a result, a newly empowered civil society is reclaiming its rightful place between governments and free markets as a viable alternative that is capable...
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June 12, 2012
The importance of governance: a new guidebook for social entrepreneurs
Two years ago, a group of social entrepreneurs from the Schwab Foundation community came together to identify the issues on which they wished someone had provided guidance when they were embarking on their social enterprise journey.In 2010, the first challenge they took was social investment. Many had struggled with questions such as if and how to raise capital from social investors, whether they should sign a non-disclosure agreement or not and simply which social investors to approach. The experience and questions of the Schwab Social Entrepreneurs were taken up in the first publication of...
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June 8, 2012
Real justice: Civic engagement and Mexico’s justice system
“Without justice, there can be no peace. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. ” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.The magnitude of the challenges confronted by Mexico’s judicial sector is not to be underestimated. Mexico is working to make major progress in a relatively short period, attempting to radically alter hundreds of years of legal tradition in less than a decade.Whether this effort to reform the criminal justice system will succeed may depend less on the procedural changes than on efforts to address long-standing problems by shoring up...
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April 20, 2012
A juggernaut called corruption
Corruption is ubiquitous and it’s all over the news. And while everybody agrees that it is a bad thing, the scope of the problem still comes as an unwelcome surprise to many. Small wonder! The impact of corruption on doing business globally is staggering: currently the costs are estimated at up to 10 percent. In absolute numbers the amount of total bribes paid is conservatively estimated at least USD 1 trillion. Clearly, this represents a formidable obstacle to the socio-economic development of many countries.The good news is: most businesses are by now becoming acutely aware of the damage...
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April 18, 2012
A guidebook to corporate governance of social enterprises
Governance of a social enterprise, if incorporated well, helps safeguard the mission of the enterprise while allowing the management team to meet the demands of such various stakeholders as investors, employees, clients and beneficiaries, as well as comply with public policies and regulations.Yet few social enterprises use governance as a means to reach their highest potential. Likewise, board members of social enterprises often feel that they have more to offer than the social enterprise currently engages them. This is an egregious missed opportunity.No one governance mechanism fits all...
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March 8, 2012
Looking for trust in all the wrong places
The world seems to have lost the capability to make grand-scale changes. A new equitable global trade regime, a multilateral climate change agreement, reform of the UN Security Council and government bureaucracies, and the prevailing capitalist models might not happen in our lifetime.One of the key trends of the last few decades has been the total reshaping of the global landscape with the emergence of a multitude of actors with diverging interests and agendas. In the last 60 years, the number of countries has increased from 105 to 195 and international NGOs from about 1,000 to 20,000-30,000...
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February 17, 2012
Times have changed for leadership
Davos is full of leaders – but that does not stop them from questioning how their roles could change. The pervading theme this year is of extraordinary change and challenge: “we don’t have a moment to lose”; “we have to do things differently”; “this is a moment in history”; and “there is a crisis of consent” are phrases I’ve heard from academics, CEOs and politicians. Yet, while there is broad rhetorical agreement, conversations about the means of action are less clear. In this Davos blog, I’m going to concentrate on what this means for leadership. In the sessions I have attended and...
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January 27, 2012
Being a leader in this great transformation
A journalist asked me yesterday “What are social entrepreneurs doing at Davos?” “What’s your interaction with these big bosses?” I went into my spiel explaining that we’ve been developing these amazing eco-village projects and sustainable products and services and we’ve learned how it can be done cost effectively. These approaches reduce risk and add value, future proofing businesses. We want to share our experience to encourage others and maybe meet some new partners.He looked pretty sceptical. He said “It’s really great what you’re doing and what Klaus Schwab is saying about the Great...
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January 26, 2012
Davos 2012: The bottom up transformation
Media coverage of Davos often focuses on the “boldface names” – the CEOs, Prime Ministers and globally recognized artists who help to make the Annual Meeting a worldwide phenomenon. While their presence in Davos is without doubt one of the things that makes this event so unique, it actually obscures another aspect of Davos that tells us a great deal about how the world is changing.This year’s theme is the Great Transformation. Today’s transformations have very little in common with the grand bargains that have come before. In the 21st century, don’t look for a new Bretton Woods or Westphalia...
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January 25, 2012
Haiti: Opportunities for Investment, Job Creation and Growth
Despite the challenges, Haiti is poised for sustained growth. That is the message for the international business community that has emerged only a year after the devastating earthquake in Port-au-Prince, based on dialogue and actions by the Haitian private sector, the international community, humanitarian agencies, and innovative investors who have already established a foundation of partnerships.Haiti can achieve GDP growth of 6-8% for the next decade, given the right public policies, positive engagement of the national and international private sector, and sustained support from the...
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January 23, 2011
NGOs: connecting policymakers to the grassroots
Non-governmental organizations play a variety of roles in partnering with the Forum to improve the state of the world, including serving as a bridge between business, government and civil society, connecting the policy makers to the grassroots, bringing practical solutions to the table, calling their peers to account, and acting as the mouthpiece for the voiceless who are often left out of decision-making processes.NGOs participate in the Forum's Annual Meeting, the Annual Meeting of New Champions, and the regional summits. Throughout the year, NGO CEOs and specialists contribute to the Forum...
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November 18, 2010
Partnering Against Corruption Initiative
Join the leading global business voice on anti-corruption Anti-corruption - a strategic imperative for every CEOPACI - the leading global business voice on anti-corruptionPACI – bringing together cross-industry communitiesThe PACI Board, 2013PACI sectors and industriesPACI is active around the worldPACI is making a tangible impact in the fight against corruptionMore about PACIAnti-corruption - a strategic imperative for every CEOCorruption is identified as the top impediment to conducting business in 22 out of 144 economies, as measured in the World Economic Forum's Global...
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October 26, 2010
Global Redesign Initiative
The World Economic Forum was founded on the idea of bringing business together with its stakeholders in the belief that common challenges could only be solved together.In the 40 years of the Forum’s history, those challenges – like the Forum itself – have become global.In the aftermath of the economic crisis it’s clear that a return to “business as usual” is not enough.Increased global cooperation is vital for economic recovery and renewal, and in removing barriers the Forum to live up to its commitment to “improve the state of the world”. The only way issues will be positively addressed and...
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October 19, 2010
