Clear the snow, look for the Germans, save Europe and other simple tasks ...

It’s mocked, sometimes lovingly, at other times cynically, as a “plutocracy” at the foot of the Magic Mountain: The World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss town of Davos. This year, political decision-makers and business leaders feel the need to show face and take a stance in Davos. On Monday, the forum started with a new record of participants including an impressive number of heads of state. 

Despite the relative growth optimism, the topic of inequality looms large in Davos, as do appeals to finally address it. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde did exactly that yesterday. And Davos leads by example in at least one way: Here, the invisible hand marshals by snowfall. Of which there is currently enough to bring everything to a halt. In the eyes of snow, all participants are equal – and equally unable to move from A to B. Severe precipitation has also caused disruption of the dress code: Suits are now complemented by snow boots. 

Germany, this year, is decidedly more concerned with itself than with being visible. Even the Social Democrats’ decision on Sunday to bite the bullet of entering new coalition talks with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats does not make a difference. Our managing Chancellor takes the Davos stage on Wednesday afternoon, as the opening act so to say, for French President Emmanuel Macron. Apart from that, the German policy and business worlds make themselves rather scarce. At the beginning of last year, international media placed confidence in Germany to potentially be the last anchor of stability in the free world. The overall image was right: Germany offers much stability and engages in a lot of anchoring. But movement and development? Not so much. 

“Now that the sun is shining in almost the entire world, we have the opportunity to fix the roof of the global economy. We should not wait until it starts raining again.” IMF-Managing Director Christine Lagarde 

Christine Lagarde is one of the Co-Chairs of this year’s forum - one of seven women. Now that’s a poignant message. And the WEF had every reason to deliver it: At its most significant levels, the world economy remains a middle-aged-to-old men’s club. This year, more women than ever before are reported to participate. But such a grandiose statement belies a much less grandiose number: 20 percent. How to change this measly proportion any time soon is a question stuck in symbolism once more. “We will not achieve anything globally if half of the world’s population lacks equal opportunities”, said WEF President Borge Brende. One advantage: You can’t find a shorter line in Davos than the one for the women’s restrooms. 

Many Davos guests arrived last night from Munich, where Germany’s managing Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel warned of the supremacy of tech giants at Steffi Czerny’s DLD conference: “Will we become passive bystanders in the new Cold War over technology? Or does Europe have better answers in store?” Promptly, Uber-CEO Dara Khosrowshahi answered in turn: “There is a chance that Germany is missing the boat.” At the same time, he admitted grave mistakes in Uber’s history: “We stepped into the German market and behaved in a manner that was totally wrong. It deserves a reset.” Others demand the same of the tech industry at this week’s WEF. Monopoly creation, hate speech online, and sexism within their own ranks all chip away at the reputation of Facebook, Google, Amazon & Co. 

Add on widespread fear about the future of work. According to a WEF study, 1.4 million jobs will be replaced by increasing automation by 2026 - 57 percent of which are currently held by women. But the study offers an ounce of hope, too: Given the appropriate reskilling and training opportunities, 95 percent of affected employees could end up with better jobs. “It took more than a decade until the world found a collective response to climate change. If we take as long to react to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we will miss the chance to shape the development of technologies that guide our ways of work, life, and behavior,” says WEF-founder Klaus Schwab. For all the changemakers in Davos this year’s WEF Crystal Award winner Sir Elton John might offer the following inspiration: “There is never a straight line to success and there wasn’t for me.”

Their positioning within the program says a lot about the “fractured world” at the center of this year’s agenda: This morning, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially opens the forum, acting as a counterpart to Chinese President Xi Jinping, who used the same spot last year to present himself as the savior of free trade and an open society just a few days before Donald Trump’s inauguration. 

Meanwhile, the economy does not seem to care who is responsible for the boom in growth – as long as it exists. For the first time, the majority (57 percent) of 1,900 international company leaders surveyed by consulting firm PwC thinks that the global economy will prosper in the next 12 months. That number has almost doubled since last year (29 percent). Some introspection turned out a little more skeptical: Merely 42 percent of CEOs worldwide indicated confidence that their own company would grow in the next 12 months (compared to last year’s 38 percent). 

We - that’s Léa Steinacker, Sven Prange, and I - hope your day starts off with power and delight! 

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