Davos 2025 Highlights: The Resilient Enterprise

The Exclusive Executive Dinner in Davos, hosted by Creative Dock and Roland Berger, brought together global leaders to tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing businesses today. With the backdrop of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2025, discussions ranged from leading through crisis, “geopolitical recession,” and the rise of sustainability.

The event focused on what it takes to be resilient and how to thrive through strategic diversification and transformation. Insights from the evening serve as a blueprint for companies looking to navigate uncertainty and unlock new opportunities. What lies ahead poses both challenges and exciting opportunities.?

Geopolitical and Economic Shifts: Adapting to a New Reality

Marcus Berret, Global Managing Director at Roland Berger, highlighted the emergence of a geopolitical recession, where rising mistrust and dissatisfaction have destabilised governments across many countries.

"Just a year ago, the outlook for the super election year 2024 was unclear. Now, in January 2025, there's more clarity: 40% of the world population voted, and for the first time since 1900, every governing party lost. This reflects significant mistrust and dissatisfaction among voters – a critical wake-up call. We are entering a new phase of global development marked by "geopolitical recession," with nations rebalancing and renegotiating their relationships." - Marcus Berret, Global Managing Director at Roland Berger?

This global uncertainty has underscored the importance of corporate foresight, enabling businesses to stay ahead of market trends and thrive amidst economic turbulence. In these rapidly changing times, leaders must rely on actionable insights to anticipate disruptions and position themselves for sustainable revenue growth. For most European companies, this means embracing business model innovation and aligning regulatory reforms with strategic foresight to remain competitive.

Lessons in Resilience: Blue Skies and Dark Days?

Airbnb’s pandemic story was equally compelling. Kathrin Anselm, General Manager at Airbnb DACH & CEE, shared insights on how the company scaled back to its core services, trusted its market insights, and prioritised employee well-being during the challenging times of the pandemic.?

Kathrin Anselm shared hard-won lessons from leading through crisis – namely, the pandemic that forced the booming company to re-evaluate just about everything.?

“The learning that is dearest to my heart is: provide for your people,“ she shared. "We had some tough leadership decisions to make in 2020. Company culture is easy when you know the sky is blue and the company is doing well, but culture is really what you do in your darkest days.” - Kathrin Anselm, General Manager at Airbnb DACH & CEE

Sustainability as a Driver for Innovation

Sustainability has moved beyond a “nice-to-have” to a business imperative. Paolo Lanzarotti, CEO at Asahi Beverages Europe & International, outlined the growing demand for purpose-driven and consumer-centric business models. Corporate initiative trends such as health & well-being and environmental responsibility are reshaping industries, driving the need for faster, more efficient solutions.

“Company purpose is solving problems in the world, profitably. Somebody might look back in 20 years, in a world with carbon taxes and plastic taxes, and think, “Who were those folks who made the decisions back then?” So we model that out, we incentivize people to enact sustainable initiatives into their everyday, and we’ve readdressed some of our brand positions to actually stand for a social purpose. And it works. It really works.” - Paolo Lanzarotti, CEO at Asahi Beverages Europe & International

Asahi has shown how business model innovation can align profitability with purpose. For companies aiming to lead in their markets, sustainability offers a clear path to differentiation and long-term value creation.

Inspired by these insights? Read the full article HERE.