Davos is a meeting place for the helpless

Do you still have to go to Davos? This is the question that many top managers and politicians must have asked themselves when they found this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) invitation in their email inbox. Do we still need a platform that seems outdated in view of the nationalist power play of the great powers with their plea for free trade, cooperation and globalization?

That Davos has lost a lot of its former charm this year will quickly be recognized by those who, despite all their doubts, set out for the magic mountain this week. Without snow, the Swiss mountain resort seems a bit like the emperor without clothes. The assembled economic elite should feel just as naked after the pandemic, war and inflation have destroyed their business model of a thoroughly globalized world economy trimmed for efficiency.

So there is definitely a lot to talk about. For example, the question of how internationally active companies maneuver through the geopolitical cliffs of military conflicts, fragile states and interrupted supply chains.