Reflecting on a week at Davos for WEF2024

“Don’t lose yourself in the distraction of success, such as being in Davos just to be at a cool event and to show off. This is a distraction to avoid for a founder”.?

Those were the words from Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, that I heard upon my first day in Davos for #WEF2024, in a Dinner with about 50 other Tech founders.

It was clear to me that Davos was not to show off nor to be distracted. My agenda was packed and the hotel I was staying at was one of the furthest away from the WEF congress centre, a brisk 25 min walk that served me well to prepare for the day ahead that started with business breakfasts at 7 am and to process what happened over the day once the last meetings held over networking dinners concluded.?

Spending a week in Davos has been an insightful experience as a business leader. From the first few hours, it is evident that being in Davos is a way to speed up business as you get to talk with decision-makers of all the organisations you work with or want to work with. It’s like a “buffet of opportunities” and the challenge is to find time to meet all stakeholders. But beyond these bilateral meetings, it was also a moment to listen and learn from inspirational leaders.

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AI was probably the most discussed topic at the event with a significant amount of debates and discussions around its applications, impact on society, and its regulation. One of my key takeaways from these discussions is about the huge energy required for AI, so much so that its development will probably depend on the next breakthrough in renewable energy production, such as nuclear fusion, in order to sustainably power it at scale.?

I also managed to carve out some time to attend another session outside of my business-focused objectives to listen to Ray Dalio and his Ocean X initiative. I have high esteem for Ray Dalio as I’m passionate about ocean and ocean conservation. Dalio, who is one of the biggest and most successful hedge fund managers in the world, has decided to invest part of his fortune in exploring the oceans, not space as several other billionaires are doing. He believes we depend on the ocean much more than on space and we know very little to almost nothing about it. Dalio shared how Jacques Cousteau inspired him when he was a child, and that inspiration is the reason why he decided to build Ocean X, one of the biggest and probably the most advanced ocean exploration ships.

The panel connected us to a live stream with one of Ocean X’s submarines and a scientist 300m below the surface in the Seychelles, showing how they collect environmental DNA from the water to study ocean ecosystems. It was fascinating and another reminder of how special and fragile our planet is.

Perhaps the best session was one with Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart. Walmart is the biggest employer in the world with 2 million employees, and McMillon was sharing his experience with a group of unicorn founders and innovators on company culture. He started with a couple of powerful sentences that really moved me: ”As founders, you have a bigger chance than myself to shape the culture of your company. Do not underestimate your influence as founders for future decades! Think 100 years ahead.” According to him, companies must document and iterate on their culture to thrive. I found myself comforted by the fact that we are doing this at Satispay. Culture is what you do and what really happens in the company, and as leaders you have to design and encourage the behaviours you want to see persist in the company for the foreseeable future and beyond. As such, behaviours can be changed and adapted based on what you see happen in the company at a specific moment in time, while values should basically stay the same.??

It has been a fruitful week in Davos and I look forward to further building upon the business relationships that were initiated there.