Secondwealthiest man in the world . Is that right . Klaus schwab is the entrepreneur, the engineer, the economist, and the maestro who has organized the World Economic forum over the last 50 years. In over 50 years, it has been a place where the elites of the world have gathered to talk about global issues. I have been a member of the World Economic forum board for a number of years, and i have seen up close the extraordinary skills of klaus schwab. Let me ask you, at the end of january for the last 50 years or so, the elites of the world, the most famous businesspeople, the most famous heads of state gather in davos to talk about various financial issues. This january, is it going to be possible . Klaus yes, we come together for the usual week, that in the virtual form. It is so important to look at the agenda of 2021 and to shape the agenda. We are at a crossroads. But the Virtual Meeting is not enough, so we combined it with a meeting where people physically will meet again, later in may. Hopefully, vaccines and testing will allow us to do so. [applause] david last year, President Trump spoke. And you have had xi jinping in recent years, you have had vladimir putin, president of france, chancellor of germany, leaders from all over the world. To get these leaders, do you have to call them and say you are personally invited . Or do they call you and say, i want to come . Klaus no, usually their presence is the result of a long friendship, in certain cases, or at least the relationship. Just look at, i take the case of mrs. Merkel. When there was the fall of the wall and the World Economic forum was really engaged and essentially in the german reunification, because chancellor kohl and his eastern counterpart met for the first head with the reunification. Go at the time, there was a young member from eastern germany appointed to the cabinet as environmental minister. And we made her a young Global Leader. And she came regularly to davos. And so out of, lets say, this first invitation, regular participation has developed over the last years. And i could go on and on. Usually, the people who are coming to davos are part of what i would call the Davos Community of regulars. David of all the famous people that have come to make speeches, who was it who drew the biggest attention, of all the people you have had . Klaus i think it is difficult, because it was always related to specific timing when someone came. For example, when President Trump came, he was the first year in the office. But for me, the most important or the most memorable participant, totally was nelson mandela. David you have a lot of prominent people coming, business people, government people. Do they call you sometimes and say, my hotel is not adequate or, i need more passes . What are the complaints . How do you shield yourself from all these complaints that people might need about, they need a bigger hotel room or they might need entourage passes or something . Klaus most of those people i am in touch more on an intellectual basis, on a political basis, on a conceptual basis. So fortunately, they dont always dare to call me if there are such matters. But they call my staff, and really insist, because davos is a place for skiing. It is a hotel. It is not like in a big city. But i think everybody over time now accepts what is important is the personal contact, the Frank Exchange of ideas, so you make sacrifices in terms of your personal comfort. David why did you pick davos . There are many great cities in switzerland. Why did you not do it in geneva where you are living, or why not some other resort in switzerland . Klaus i wanted to avoid a big city. I wanted to create a true Global Village where people meet on the streets. Davos is a village. Davos has the necessary infrastructure in terms of hotels, and also a Great Congress house. David for those who have not been there, how do you get invited to go to davos every year . Who gets to go . Klaus you have to be a decisionmaker in politics or business, but also in civil society. And in addition, we invite always young people. Of course, the media, scientists. So it is a true middle of global stakeholders. Which means of all walks of society. David if somebody is watching you and says, i have never been invited to davos, i would like to go, do i send a letter to klaus schwab . Say, i would like to come. Klaus i would read the letter, because i am curious about new people. As an example, i just got an email i do not know where she got my email address from, from a young girl in india who has done extraordinary things to help the community in terms of practical approaches to deal with environmental issues, particularly with plastics. So we have a certain open house for everybody who has an innovative spirit, because we want to shape the future. And lets not forget, we can shape the future in a positive way if we have also new, innovative ideas. David some people say davos is for the elites. And every year at the end of january, you get articles in newspapers saying, this is where the elites are gathering. How do you respond to people saying it is just for the elites of the world . Klaus it is true that there are decisionmakers, but it is only half of the truth. You have in addition, many people not very well known, particularly not well known to the media. I will give you some examples. I invited a member of the parliament. We invited people like mandela. I was one of the first visitors to see him when he came out of prison in 1990. So i brought him in 1992. It was a remarkable historical event, because it was the first time he came together with at that time, president deklerk. It was a demonstration that apartheid has stopped in south africa. Many of those people, young, not very well known, but those sorts of people who shape the future. [ sigh ] not gonna happen. Thats it. Im calling kohler about their walkin bath. My name is ken. How may i help you . Hi, im calling about kohlers walkin bath. Excellent happy to help. Huh . Hold one moment please. [ finger snaps ] hmm. The kohler walkin bath features an extrawide opening and a low stepin at three inches, which is 25 to 60 lower than some leading competitors. The bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders. Kohler is an expert in bathing, so you can count on a deep soaking experience. Are you seeing this . The kohler walkin bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets and our exclusive bubblemassage. Everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohlercertified installer. And its made by kohler americas leading plumbing brand. We need this bath. Yes. Yes you do. A kohler walkin bath provides independence with peace of mind. Call to receive 1,000 off your kohler walkin bath. And right now were offering no payments for 18 months. And i have to say, we will not come back just to meet again in person, and videoconferencing will disappear. We will look for a combination of the two, because videoconferencing is very good to transmit knowledge, to transmit information. But physical meetings are important to create trust. David what lessons have you learned about how to deal with people, or deal with the World Economic forum, as a result of covid . Klaus the key lesson is we have to cultivate resilience. I think we have to develop for our societies a higher degree of resilience. And by the way, how we do it will be one of the themes of the next annual meeting in davos. David lets talk about your background and how you came to create what is known as davos. Where did you grow up . Klaus i grew up in a middlesized town just north of switzerland in germany. And i actually still experienced the horrors of world war ii. I remember how i was sitting with my teddy bear in our shelter. But we were actually fortunate, because my father was working for a Swiss Company and was also active for the International Red cross. So we could cross the border at any time between germany and switzerland. And what struck me and what probably influenced my whole life was to cross the kind of line, an artificial line, the border between switzerland and germany. And on the one side, there was peace. And on the other side, there was war. I think it was a very important element for me, a driver to devote my life to dialogue, to reconciliation, to working together in order to solve issues. David and so you went to school in germany, a high school in germany . Klaus yes, i went to high school in germany. But i studied in switzerland where i did at the same time, studies in mechanical engineering. But at the same time i studied economics, and i concluded those with a masters degree and afterwards, with a doctorate. My father felt in order to be in business, you had to go to Harvard Business school. So i applied to Harvard Business school. I was accepted. But then i wrote to Harvard Business school, to dean baker, look, i have two doctorates. I want to come to second year immediately. And he wrote back, no way. So what happened afterwards, i found a school at the time, we did not have the internet yet, it was a big catalog, i found a center that today is the kennedy school. And i discovered that if you worked at that center, you could cross into everywhere in the harvard system. So that is what i did. I registered with the kennedy school, went to all the classes of the Harvard Business school, second year. And suddenly, i got an invitation from dean baker to have tea with him in his little president s house. And he said, you are the first one who outfoxed our system. From now on, cross registry will only be possible for two classes. But for me, this year changed my life, because i met all the people like henry kissinger, john kenneth galbraith, and i became much more interested in political, general economic, societal problems. David after you finished at harvard, you came back to germany or switzerland . Klaus i got a phone call from a famous swiss industrialist and he told me, you have the harvard experience, i just merged two companies, 10,000 people companies, Big Industrial groups, so why dont you come and you are responsible for the merger . So i went through school because i had to lay off people, but after two years, the job was more or less finished. And i asked myself, what to do now . And i got an offer from the university of geneva to do teaching. And i felt, with all the Academic Experience i had accumulated, business experience, i should spend one or two years teaching. At the same time, i got an offer from the german machine building association. You have been at harvard, you have business experience, why dont you write a book for our members on modern management . So i sat down and asked myself, what is actually the purpose of a company . And that is when i came up with the stakeholder concept, which means that a company is not just an economic unit, but a social organism. And it has to serve all those who depend on the company, who have a stake in the company, like the people working in the company, the community. So that was the beginning, actually, of the davos idea. Because the davos idea is stakeholder capitalism, stakeholder responsibility. David so you are back at the university of geneva. You are teaching economics. Is that what you are teaching . Klaus i was teaching actually leadership, corporate management. As a professor, i should say frankly, i was a little bit bored of all the previous experience. I had written this book. And then i felt, why not create the platform where Business Leaders could meet their stakeholders, which means political leaders, but also outstanding voices of society . So i got i had made some savings and i got some money from my parents. And that is how i started the davos platform, which is now called the World Economic forum. And actually, i incorporated it immediately as a notforprofit foundation, because i recognized if i wanted to attract governments, it cannot be a profitmaking venture. David so had you made it forprofit venture, you think it would not have become as big as it has become . Klaus no, certainly not. Because now, we have the trust of everybody, because people know we are serving a purpose and we are not serving our own interests. David what year was it you had your first conference . Klaus it was 1971 and there were 444 people and actually, i hired one employee because i needed some experience in how to run a conference. That is how i met my wife. She was my first collaborator. David so you have now been married for how many years . Klaus next year, it will be 50 years, david. David 50 years. Ok. So will you have a big party at davos to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary . Klaus no, we are a more private family. We married in Little Church in a mountain valley, which cannot, lets say, give room to more than 20, 30 people. So we will go back to the church, if covid allows us to do so. David what is it you are most proud of having created over the 50 year period of time . Is it a network, a community . What is it that makes you most proud of what you have done . Klaus i am personally very proud as an academic that stakeholder capitalism is now broadly accepted. [ sigh ] not gonna happen. Thats it. Im calling kohler about their walkin bath. My name is ken. How may i help you . Hi, im calling about kohlers walkin bath. Excellent happy to help. Huh . Hold one moment please. [ finger snaps ] hmm. The kohler walkin bath features an extrawide opening and a low stepin at three inches, which is 25 to 60 lower than some leading competitors. The bath fills and drains quickly, while the heated seat soothes your back, neck and shoulders. Kohler is an expert in bathing, so you can count on a deep soaking experience. Are you seeing this . The kohler walkin bath comes with fully adjustable hydrotherapy jets and our exclusive bubblemassage. Everything is installed in as little as a day by a kohlercertified installer. And its made by kohler americas leading plumbing brand. We need this bath. Yes. Yes you do. A kohler walkin bath provides independence with peace of mind. Call to receive 1,000 off your kohler walkin bath. And right now were offering no payments for 18 months. David what was it that propelled davos, as we are calling it now, or World Economic forum, to go from a 444 person event to a global phenomenon . What was it that changed things and made it so popular and so important for people to attend . Klaus i think if i look over the last 50 years, it is the conviction that the big issues in the world need a collaborative approach. Business has to interact with government leaders, but also, if you want to plan longterm, you have to know how customers feel, how the young generation feels, what experts are thinking. So davos became a place where you really could absorb what the future will bring you. I think intellectual or contextual intelligence, to know what is going on not only now, but what will happen in the future, to connect the dots became more and more important for Business Leaders when they looked at their longterm strategies. David over the 50 years or so, have there been one or two or three events that happened at davos, where a Global Leader of one country met with another leader of another country, and a Peace Agreement broke out . Does that happen very much . Klaus it happens. For example, we already we were at a very critical moment. 30 years ago, we prevented probably a war between turkey and greece. We were the only platform for many years which brought israeli leadership and the arab leadership together. As you know, we try always to be a platform of good services. I would even say it is the swiss tradition, because like switzerland, the World Economic forum is independent, impartial and nonpolitical. David many people that build organizations like yours, that has been over 50 years now, they want them to continue forever. What do you hope will happen subsequent to your not being the executive chair . Will it continue, or can it not continue without you . Klaus i have built a strong governance structure with the trustees and also the managing board. The World Economic forum is now an organization with offices around the world in china, tokyo, the u. S. And we have our center for the First Industrial revolution in san francisco. I think there are many capable people and if something happened to me, i think the spirit would survive. David what is it you are most proud of having created over the 50 year period of time . It is a gathering place, a network, community . What is it that makes you most proud of what you have done . Klaus i think there are many, many examples where we took an initiative or we provided a solution. I am personally very proud as an academic that stakeholder capitalism is now broadly accepted, and has been, even in the corona crisis, shown as being a more robust model for the business compared to one company, which is only aiming at shortterm profits. David when you call somebody, any head of state in the world, or you email somebody, does it take more than five minutes or two minutes to get a call back . Everybody knows you and everybody wants to talk with you. How hard is it to get anybody on the phone . I would assume not too hard. Klaus i would say it is not too hard. Certainly not within a minute. Sometimes it takes a week. But certainly, most people i have met every leader, probably around the world, with the exception of the last pope. I tried to take out of all those meetings the very best. And david, if i may, when you meet those people, you ask yourself, what makes a leader today . I have a simple definition. It takes brains, soul, heart and muscles. Now, the brain stands for professionalism. You have to know what you are dealing with. The soul stands for having a compass, which gives you direction. It may be a vision, it is your values. And the heart is for passion. You have to be passionate about what you are doing. And the muscles is for being able to implement your ideas, your vision to translate your values. And i have to say, when i look around in the world, all the leaders i have met, there are only very few who respond to all four criteria. But again, the person who is outstanding, the best model is certainly nelson mandela. David i am going to conclude by saying i have met a lot of great leaders as well. But i would also say one that has brains, soul, heart and muscle is klaus schwab. Congratulations on what you have done. I hope you are very proud of what you have built. I hope to see you not too long from now. Klaus thank you very much, david. Our world is changing. Every day, it changes a little faster. Some changes are too small to see. Others, too big to handle. Sometimes, change feels slow. So slow, we dont even notice. Other times, it happens all at once and we cant keep up. For our climate, change means many things and between too small to see, and too big to handle, there is a whole world of difference. The c