No time to Enjoy Switzerland – Alison Levine

Alison Levine is guest blogging for the Forum. She is a mountaineer, polar explorer and President of DareDevil Strategies.  She is attending the Annual Meeting in Davos. You can follow her on twitter @levine_alison

I didn't enjoy Switzerland.

I thought since I would be spending 5 days in Switzerland I would have time to take in some of the sights and activities that Switzerland is famous for. I figured I would be able to play a little tennis with Roger Federer, do some hiking in the Alps with Heidi, and then we could all head inside the ski lodge and enjoy a hot cup of Swiss Miss. Well, things didn’t quite turn out that way.
 
I couldn’t enjoy Switzerland. I didn’t have time. This was my first Davos meeting and I was far too busy rushing around the WEF Congress Center trying to soak in as much information as I could from various speakers and panelists; everyone brainstorming on how we could collaborate to address the world’s most pressing global challenges.
 
A big focus at this year’s meeting: understanding and responding to global risks in a more proactive way. The beauty of Davos is that it brings together a cornucopia of thought-leaders in order to pool intellectual resources so that we can be prepared to deal with crisis when it happens. My own experience with risk comes from a different perspective than most of the other participants here. I don’t have a PhD nor am I an economist. I have never run a country. Or even a company. Matter of fact, I have never run anything…other than errands. But don’t dismiss me because I fly commercial.
 
My take on risk comes from my experiences climbing some of the world’s highest peaks and from expeditions to some of the most remote, extreme environments on the planet. Lessons learned in these contexts are no doubt applicable to various sectors of industry and government – adapt to a changing environment or perish.