I'm Edie Lush and I'm here with Christoph Schweizer, CEO of BCG.
How are you today?
Well, good morning, Edie. It's great to see you.
I am very well still at this moment,
but it is literally minus 15 degrees Celsius as we stand on this terrace here.
I'm not sure I'm going to be still unfrozen by the time we finish this,
but it's great to see you. I'm well, I'm excited. I'm energized. How are you?
Good. I'm good. I am worried about your lack of gloves though.
So am I , but we are going to be fine.
All right. So you came into Davos with four themes.
Just remind me what those are.
Well,
I came to Davos with the four themes that I believe are top of mind issues for
CEOs and other leaders at this moment in time - resilience,
digital and artificial intelligence, climate and sustainability, and people,
people, people. What do we mean by that? I mean, first of all,
there's a lot of uncertainty out there.
Any organization needs to be resilient to the many shocks, changes,
disruptions that are happening, and the massive uncertainty that's out there.
I think this week was a perfect confirmation that there is a lot of uncertainty
and that there will be shocks for sure also in 2023 and beyond.
Then on digital and AI. Well,
we heard a lot of talk about ChatGPT and a lot of other things.
I think actually we heard too much about ChatGPT because there are so many other
applications and use cases and real things around AI. But
of course it's starting to have a real impact on how businesses operate.
And we think that's now settling in with many leaders. Third,
climate and sustainability, of course,
that's the biggest challenge for mankind and for our planet,
as always at Davos in the last years that has been top of mind.
I think we talk a lot, we see less progress than we would like to.
I did sense some meaningful progress on some of the energy transition topics,
which is great and urgently needed. And finally, people, people, people. I mean,
this is still...
The talent discussion is still there.
This is still so real. The war for talent is not over. Of course,
some companies, in the tech sector, in the banking sector, et cetera,
have started to reduce workforce, but talent is still super scarce,
and they are still so many companies that are limited in what they want to do
because they do not get the right talent into their organizations.
I think that's still top of mind.
So I wonder what surprised you that you heard in the discussions this week?
So, what surprised me, Edie,
is if you talk to people individually behind closed doors,
I think everyone more or less admits that they do not really know where things
are going. Then you bring 3,000 people together, you create discussion,
settings. You have...
A lot of hot air.
Yeah, absolutely. You have a lot of hot air,
and all of a sudden everyone starts suggesting with great precision where the
world is going economically in 2023. I still believe that even after Davos,
we might have a tiny bit of a sentiment change,
that people are a bit more optimistic than when they landed here and it was all
gloomy, but we still don't know,
and this is going to be a year with many surprises,
hopefully more good ones than bad ones.
I do think it's also a bit of a strength to admit that you do not really know,
because then you need to run your business or your government in a very adaptive
way. And I felt we were over-suggesting, a little bit,
how much we know where things are going.
That's interesting. So I wonder, did anything disappoint you this week?
Did you come away with sense of 'I wish that was different?'.
People who have been to Davos for years know that,
appropriately,
for many years there was a lot of conversation about what's happening in
emerging markets in Latin America, in Africa, in parts of Asia,
because that's an important part of the global economy,
and it's a very important part for so many challenges for mankind.
We are not going to solve climate change if we do not involve emerging markets.
We are not going to solve migration if we don't... et cetera. And, in a way,
emerging markets were absent from the conversation this week. Why?
Because everyone talks about the recession, yes or no in the US,
everyone talks about what's happening in China, the energy crisis in Europe.
I found it quite disappointing that there was little talk about the
emerging markets.
And I do think there are major challenges there also on the economy side.
And in a way it felt like a lost opportunity to have a truly global perspective
here.
Let's end on a note of optimism. What excited you this week?
One thing that excites me in general is that we have a
generation coming into the workforce,
the 25 year-old college and university graduates, the 30 year-olds. And,
well,
this generation comes with an incredible orientation around
purpose. They are very driven, very committed, very passionate, and you know,
they are so talented when it comes to digital and artificial intelligence.
They are very educated on climate and sustainability.
They do not need major upskilling efforts as the more senior parts of workforces
do.
And I'm just excited about their connectedness and how global they also are.
If I look at some of the people who have now just joined BCG in the last year
out of university, I mean,
if they could listen to our people here in Davos talk about decoupling and
de-globalization, et cetera, they would say,
we have no freaking idea what you're talking about . Because for them,
I mean, they had a very global setting. In university,
they have friends all over the place.
They connect with FIFA 23 and whatever games they play.
And they would be really disturbed had they listened to some of the dialogue
here. I think we have a wonderful talent base, an excited talent base.
And in a way I do think we as leaders need to convey to
them that this is going to be an exciting world to work in.
It's going to be an exciting world where you can make a difference.
And I'm genuinely very passionate about that.
And I hope we'll be able to translate that. For sure, in my role as CEO of BCG,
I'll go back home and make sure that everything that was discussed here turns
into an opportunity for us.
Thank you so much for sharing those thoughts with us, Christoph. Thank you.
That's all from us here on the balcony here in Davos.
Thanks, and we made it at minus 15 degrees Celsius. Edie, thank you so much.
Absolutely. Thank you.