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The Creative Imperative :

World Economic Forum, Davos Annual Meeting 2006

The theme of the 2006 World Economic Forum (WEF)  in Davos 25-29 January, Davos, Switzerland is The Creative Imperative. According to Prof. Klaus Schwab, the founder of WEF,  the emphasis at this year's meeting, which takes place under the banner "The Creative Imperative", is on innovative solutions to the world's problems.

Some Extracts of Key Opinions from World business Leaders

• Thanks to globalization, there is a greater premium than ever on creativity in all walks of life. Businesses must constantly reinvent themselves (as for example Apple computer achieved by morphing into a digital entertainment giant). Workers, too, must be more flexible, and ready to change jobs or even careers to stay ahead of the curve.

Kenneth Rogoff, Thomas D Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics, Harvard University

• One area we can improve things is to engage the younger generation much more actively. Younger leaders in their 20s and 30s are the future guardians of our society. We need to integrate them into the process of managing the global order, and hopefully they will provide a different level of creativity and innovation to help us to find alternatives.
  
  In terms of business, I think differentiation really is the name of the game now. To differentiate means you have to be innovative and creative. We cannot rely simply on doing things better than last time around. We are looking at a quantum jump in the innovative and creative process in order to stay well ahead of the game

     Victor Chu, Chairman and CEO, First Eastern Investment Group, Hong Kong SAR; Member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum

• The fundamental framework and tools that leaders in government, business and civil society use to make decisions today have fundamentally altered. In a dramatically shifting environment, if businesses and governmental institutions are to remain relevant, they have to adopt new approaches to address global challenges. In order to do that, they need new creative, innovative capabilities.
  
  If we focus on the business environment, in many ways we’re in a post-globalization, post-knowledge age. Five to seven years ago the business environment was being defined by globalization where the likes of Wal Mart established processes and systems to compete on cost and productivity. While still an important factor, “cheaper, better, faster” is no longer a sure point of differentiation…. the companies that incorporate effective design and harness creativity capability stand a better chance succeeding.

 
          Jonathan Schmidt, Director, Global Agenda, World

          Economic Forum

• What is the key to building a great company?
  1. We need good leadership. I don’t know of a single great company that has not had good leaders. Great leaders raise the aspirations of their followers; they make people more confident, energetic and enthusiastic. Such leaders make people embrace the adage: A plausible impossibility is better than a convincing possibility. It is not sufficient just to have great leaders. We need a mechanism to identify, train, empower and mentor successive generations of leaders. Such leadership training and mentoring has to become the responsibility of the current generation of leaders.
  
  2. We have to create a grand, noble vision which elevates the energy, enthusiasm and self esteem of everyone in the company while ensuring that everybody sees a benefit in following the vision.
  
  4. A company has to benchmark itself on a global scale in every area including sales, production, human resources, R&D and finance. It creates an open and confident environment where first-raters recruit first-raters.
  
  5. A great company continuously measures and improves the following attributes: meritocracy, fairness, justice, openness, speed, imagination and excellence in execution.

          6. A great company practices an enduring value system,

          and follows the finest system of corporate governance.

          N. R. Narayana Murthy,
          Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor,
          Infosys Technologies
 

          For more info re the WEF in Davos, click here.