Latest / The David Rubenstein Show / Klaus Schwab
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Best. Bloomberg Best is about the insight
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- 0:18Speaker 1: seven hundred journalists and analysts in more than a hundred
- 0:21Speaker 1: twenty countries around the world. I'm at Baxter and I'm
- 0:24Speaker 1: Denise Pelaguini on this weekend edition of Bloomberg Best. You
- 0:28Speaker 1: have to be a decision maker. What it takes to
- 0:31Speaker 1: get invited to the World Economic Forum. We can shape
- 0:35Speaker 1: the future in a positive way if you have also
- 0:38Speaker 1: new innovative ideas. The founder of the World Economic Forum
- 0:42Speaker 1: says some slots get held open for young, unheard of innovators.
- 0:46Speaker 1: I was one of the first visitors to see him
- 0:49Speaker 1: when he came out of prison in ninety and claud
- 0:52Speaker 1: Schwab on inviting Nelson Mandela. All this and more coming
- 0:56Speaker 1: up in the next hour of Bloomberg Best and going
- 1:01Speaker 1: to Davos for the World Economic Forum. It's usually a
- 1:05Speaker 1: huge deal. Yeah, but you know Denis says, you know,
- 1:08Speaker 1: it's not happening in Davos, Switzerland this year though, because
- 1:11Speaker 1: of the pandemic. Yeah, that's right. It'll be in Singapore
- 1:15Speaker 1: this year in May instead of earlier in the year
- 1:18Speaker 1: and partly virtual. But we did have a chance to
- 1:20Speaker 1: hear from the founder and executive chairman of the Forum,
- 1:23Speaker 1: Claus Schwab. He spoke on the David Rubinstein Show, Pure
- 1:26Speaker 1: to pure conversations, and David begins here by asking Schwab
- 1:29Speaker 1: about traditions at Davos and how it all gets put together.
- 1:34Speaker 1: Check it out. So, Klaus, let me ask you. Uh,
- 1:37Speaker 1: in the end of January, for the last fifty years
- 1:40Speaker 1: or so, the elites of the world, the most famous
- 1:42Speaker 1: business people, the most famous heads of state gather in
- 1:46Speaker 1: Davos UH to talk about various global issues. Uh. This January,
- 1:52Speaker 1: is that going to be possible? Yes, we come together
- 1:55Speaker 1: again during the usual Davos week, but of course in
- 1:59Speaker 1: the virtual form, it's so important to look at the
- 2:03Speaker 1: aceenda of twenty one and two. Shape the agenda. Yeah,
- 2:08Speaker 1: it's the cost roads. But sublitual meeting is not enough,
- 2:12Speaker 1: so we combine it with a meeting where people really physically.
- 2:17Speaker 1: We'll meet again later in May. Hopefully vaccines and podcasts
- 2:23Speaker 1: and testing will allow us to do so. Now, last
- 2:27Speaker 1: year President Trump spoke, and you've had she ping. In
- 2:31Speaker 1: recent years, you've had Vladimir Putin, President of France, uh,
- 2:36Speaker 1: the Chancellor of Germany, leaders from all over the world.
- 2:39Speaker 1: To get these leaders, do you have to call them
- 2:41Speaker 1: and say you're personally invited or do they call you
- 2:44Speaker 1: and say I want to come. No. Usually, as presidents
- 2:48Speaker 1: is the result of longer um friendship in certain cases,
- 2:57Speaker 1: or at least relationship. Just look that. I take a
- 3:01Speaker 1: case for example, Mrs Merkel when Chancellor Mrs Merkel at
- 3:06Speaker 1: that time when there was the fall off the wall
- 3:10Speaker 1: and why the way is able? The Convict film was
- 3:14Speaker 1: very engaged and essential in the German reunification because Chancellor
- 3:20Speaker 1: Cole and his East German counterpart met the first time
- 3:24Speaker 1: in Davos and decided to go ahead with the unification.
- 3:28Speaker 1: But at that time there was a young member from
- 3:32Speaker 1: Eastern Germany appointed to the cabinet as Environmental Minister, and
- 3:38Speaker 1: we made her a young global leader, and she came
- 3:42Speaker 1: regularly to Davos, and so out of let's say his
- 3:47Speaker 1: first invitation, regular participation has developed over the last year's
- 3:55Speaker 1: and I could go on and long. Um, usually the
- 3:59Speaker 1: people who are coming to Doubles a part of this
- 4:02Speaker 1: what I would call Doubles community of regulus. So all
- 4:08Speaker 1: the famous people that have come to make speeches, who
- 4:11Speaker 1: was it that drew the biggest attention of all the
- 4:14Speaker 1: people you had? I think it's difficult because it was
- 4:18Speaker 1: always related to the specific timing when someone came. UM,
- 4:24Speaker 1: for example, in President Trump came he was the first
- 4:28Speaker 1: year in in the office. But for me, the most important,
- 4:34Speaker 1: also most memorable participant certainly was Nelson Mandela. So class,
- 4:41Speaker 1: you've got a lot of prominent people coming, business people,
- 4:44Speaker 1: government people. Do they call you sometime and say my
- 4:48Speaker 1: hotel is not adequate, or I need more passes or
- 4:52Speaker 1: what are the complaints of How do you shield yourself
- 4:55Speaker 1: from all these complaints that people might make about they
- 4:57Speaker 1: need a bigger hotel room, or they need more entourage
- 5:01Speaker 1: passes or something. Because most of most of those people
- 5:05Speaker 1: I'm in touch more on an intellectual basis, on a
- 5:10Speaker 1: political basis, on a conceptual basis. So fortunately, so you
- 5:15Speaker 1: don't always there to call me if there are such
- 5:19Speaker 1: matters but they call my stuff and really insist because
- 5:24Speaker 1: Tamois is a place for skiing. As a hotel infrastructure
- 5:30Speaker 1: is not like in a big city. But I think
- 5:33Speaker 1: everybody over time now except what is important is a
- 5:38Speaker 1: personal contact see Frank Exchange of ideas. So you make
- 5:44Speaker 1: some sacrifices in terms of your personal comfort. Why did
- 5:48Speaker 1: you pick Davos? There are many great cities in Switzerland.
- 5:51Speaker 1: Why didn't you not do it in Geneva, where you
- 5:53Speaker 1: were living, or why not some other resort in Switzerland.
- 5:56Speaker 1: I want to avoid the big city. I wanted to
- 5:59Speaker 1: create a true global village where people meet on the streets.
- 6:05Speaker 1: It's that was a village. Davos heads a necessary infrastructure
- 6:10Speaker 1: in terms of hotels and also a great congress house.
- 6:15Speaker 1: So for those who haven't been there, how do you
- 6:18Speaker 1: get invited to go to Davos? Every year? Who gets
- 6:21Speaker 1: to go? You have to be a decision maker, is
- 6:25Speaker 1: in politics or in business, but also in civil society.
- 6:29Speaker 1: And in addition we invite always young people of course,
- 6:33Speaker 1: the media scientists. So it's a true mirror of global stakeholdels,
- 6:42Speaker 1: which means of all walks of society. If somebody is
- 6:46Speaker 1: watching you and says I've never been invited to DeVos.
- 6:49Speaker 1: I'd like to go. So I just send a letter
- 6:51Speaker 1: to Claus Schwab and say I'd like to come. I
- 6:53Speaker 1: would read select of me because I'm always curious about
- 6:59Speaker 1: new people and UM as an example, I just because
- 7:03Speaker 1: the email I don't know where he has my email
- 7:06Speaker 1: address from, from a young girl in sixty years old
- 7:12Speaker 1: in India who has done extraordinary things to help the community.
- 7:18Speaker 1: UM in terms of practical approaches, UM to deal with
- 7:26Speaker 1: environmental issues, particularly with plastics. So we have a certain
- 7:32Speaker 1: open house for everybody who who has an innovative spirit,
- 7:37Speaker 1: because we want to shape the future, and let's not
- 7:41Speaker 1: forget we can shape the future in a positive way
- 7:47Speaker 1: if you have also new innovative ideas. Now some people say, well,
- 7:51Speaker 1: Davos is the is for the elites, and every year
- 7:54Speaker 1: when Davos occurs the end of January you get articles
- 7:57Speaker 1: in newspapers saying this is where the elites are gathering.
- 8:00Speaker 1: How do you respond to people say it's just for
- 8:02Speaker 1: the elites of the world. Yes, of course all the
- 8:07Speaker 1: top decision makers are in Davos, but it's only half
- 8:10Speaker 1: of the twos you have. In addition, many people not
- 8:16Speaker 1: very well known, particularly not known to the media. I
- 8:19Speaker 1: just give you were some examples. I invited Mrs Arhund
- 8:25Speaker 1: when she still was a member of the parliament. UM.
- 8:29Speaker 1: We invited people like Mandela. I was one of the
- 8:37Speaker 1: first visitors to see him when he came out of
- 8:40Speaker 1: prison in ninety so I taught him ninety two to Davos.
- 8:45Speaker 1: It was a remarkable historical event because it was the
- 8:49Speaker 1: first time he came together with at that time President Clerk,
- 8:55Speaker 1: and it was demonstrations and apartheid as the in in
- 9:01Speaker 1: South Africa. So there many of those people young um,
- 9:06Speaker 1: not very well known, but so is also people who
- 9:10Speaker 1: shape the future. Let's talk about your background first and
- 9:13Speaker 1: then how you came to create what's known as Davos.
- 9:16Speaker 1: So where did you grow up. I grew up in
- 9:19Speaker 1: a middle size town just north of Switzerland in Germany,
- 9:24Speaker 1: and I actually experienced still the halls of World War Two.
- 9:30Speaker 1: I remember how I was sitting with my teddy bear
- 9:33Speaker 1: in our shelter um. But we were actually fortunate because
- 9:39Speaker 1: my father was working for a Swiss company and was
- 9:42Speaker 1: also active for the International Red Course, so we could
- 9:46Speaker 1: cross the border at any time between Germany and France
- 9:51Speaker 1: and Switzerland. And what stroke me and what probably influenced
- 9:57Speaker 1: my whole life, was to cause a kind of line
- 10:00Speaker 1: and artificial lines in Boldo between Switzerland and Germany. And
- 10:05Speaker 1: on the one side so was peace and on the
- 10:08Speaker 1: other side there was the war. I think it was
- 10:11Speaker 1: a very important element for me and a trival to
- 10:16Speaker 1: devote my life to dialogue, to reconciliation, to working together
- 10:23Speaker 1: in order to solve issues. And so you went to
- 10:27Speaker 1: school then in Germany and and in high school in Germany. Yes,
- 10:31Speaker 1: I went to high school in Germany, but some studied
- 10:35Speaker 1: in Switzerland. I did, at the same time a studies
- 10:42Speaker 1: in mechanical engineering, but at the same time I studied economics.
- 10:48Speaker 1: And I concluded both with a master's degree, of course,
- 10:52Speaker 1: and afterwards with a doctorate. And some of my father felt,
- 10:57Speaker 1: in order to do real a career in in business,
- 11:01Speaker 1: you have to go to Harvard Business School. So I
- 11:04Speaker 1: applied to Harvard Business School, was accepted. But son I
- 11:08Speaker 1: wrote to Harvard Business School and said, look to Dean Baker, look,
- 11:12Speaker 1: I have two doctor grads. I want to come to
- 11:15Speaker 1: the second year immediately, and he wrote back, no way.
- 11:20Speaker 1: So what happened. Afterwards, I found a school in the
- 11:25Speaker 1: At that time we didn't have the Internet yet. It
- 11:28Speaker 1: was a big catalog. I found a center which was
- 11:32Speaker 1: called Littower Center on today is the Kennedy School. And
- 11:35Speaker 1: I discovered if you do, if you accepted at the
- 11:37Speaker 1: Littower Center, you can cause register everywhere in the Harvard system.
- 11:42Speaker 1: So that's what I did. I uh registered with the
- 11:47Speaker 1: Kennedy School, went to all the classes of the Harvard
- 11:52Speaker 1: Business School second year, and suddenly I got an invitation
- 11:57Speaker 1: from Dean Baker to have tea with him in this
- 12:00Speaker 1: little president's house, and he said, you are the first
- 12:05Speaker 1: one who out foxed our system. From now on, cross
- 12:08Speaker 1: registering will only be possible for two courses, so for
- 12:12Speaker 1: two classes. But for me Cincy at Harvard it changed
- 12:16Speaker 1: my life because I met also people like Henry Kissing Jaw,
- 12:21Speaker 1: John Canders, Call Brays, and I became much more interested
- 12:25Speaker 1: in political, general, economic, societal problems. So after you've finished
- 12:31Speaker 1: at Harvard, you came back to Germany or Switzerland. I
- 12:35Speaker 1: got the phone call from a famous smiss industrialist, Mr
- 12:38Speaker 1: schmid Heini, and he told me, look, you have the
- 12:41Speaker 1: Harvard experience. I just watched two companies. What ten thousand
- 12:47Speaker 1: people company with another big industrial groups suits the group
- 12:51Speaker 1: which still exists, Why don't you come and you are
- 12:55Speaker 1: responsible for the merchant. So I went through a hearts
- 13:00Speaker 1: cool because I had to lay off people. Um. But
- 13:04Speaker 1: after two years, let's say, the job was more or
- 13:08Speaker 1: less finished, and I asked myself what to do now?
- 13:13Speaker 1: And I got an offer from the University of Geneva
- 13:17Speaker 1: to do teaching, and I felt, with all the academic
- 13:21Speaker 1: experience I have accumulated business experience, I should spend one
- 13:26Speaker 1: or two years teaching. At the same time, I got
- 13:30Speaker 1: an offer from a from the German Machine Building Association.
- 13:35Speaker 1: You have been at Howard, you have business experience, why
- 13:41Speaker 1: don't you write a book for our members on modern management.
- 13:46Speaker 1: So I sat down and asked myself what is actually
- 13:49Speaker 1: the purpose of a company? And that's when I came
- 13:53Speaker 1: up with the stakeholder concept, which means that a company
- 13:59Speaker 1: is not just an economic unit, but a social organism
- 14:03Speaker 1: and it has to serve all those who depend on
- 14:07Speaker 1: the company, who have a stake in the company, like
- 14:10Speaker 1: the people working in the company. Is the community that
- 14:14Speaker 1: is active in So that was the big let's say
- 14:18Speaker 1: beginning actually of Sdabo's idea, because the Dabo's idea is
- 14:23Speaker 1: the stakeholder capitalism, the stakehold of responsibility. Okay, so you're
- 14:29Speaker 1: back at the University of Geneva. You're teaching economics. Is
- 14:32Speaker 1: that what you're teaching? I was teaching actually leadership corporate management,
- 14:39Speaker 1: and son, as a professor of US, I should say, frankly,
- 14:45Speaker 1: a little bit bald. After all the previous experience I
- 14:49Speaker 1: had written this book, Son, I felt why not to
- 14:54Speaker 1: create the platform where business leaders could meet the stakeholders,
- 14:59Speaker 1: which means political leaders but also um outstanding voices of society.
- 15:06Speaker 1: So um I got I had made some savings and
- 15:12Speaker 1: I got some money from my parents and that's how
- 15:15Speaker 1: I started. See that was m platform, which is now
- 15:22Speaker 1: called the World econvict form and actually um I incorporated
- 15:28Speaker 1: it immediately as a not for profit foundation because I
- 15:32Speaker 1: recognize if I wanted to attract governments, it cannot be
- 15:37Speaker 1: for profit, profit making venture. So so had you made
- 15:43Speaker 1: it a for profit venture, you think it would not
- 15:45Speaker 1: have become as big as it has become. No, certainly not,
- 15:48Speaker 1: because now we have su trust of everybody, because people
- 15:55Speaker 1: know we are serving a purpose and we are not
- 15:59Speaker 1: serving how own interests? What year was it that you
- 16:02Speaker 1: had your first conference? It was seventy one, and so
- 16:06Speaker 1: we're four hundred forty four people. And actually I hired
- 16:13Speaker 1: one employee because I needed some experience in UM in
- 16:19Speaker 1: how to run a confluence. That's how I met my wife.
- 16:22Speaker 1: She was my first hitt and my first collaborator. So
- 16:26Speaker 1: you've now been married for how many years? Next year
- 16:29Speaker 1: it will be fifty years, David? Fifty years? Okay, So
- 16:33Speaker 1: we canna have a big party at DeVos to celebrate
- 16:36Speaker 1: the fiftieth wedding anniversary. No, we are more, uh, let's
- 16:41Speaker 1: say a pirate family. I think we will do it.
- 16:43Speaker 1: We married in a very little church in a mountain valley,
- 16:48Speaker 1: which cannot let's say, give whom to mores and probably
- 16:53Speaker 1: twenty thirty people. So we will go back, certainly to
- 16:57Speaker 1: the church if if COVID allows us to do so.
- 17:02Speaker 1: What was it that propelled Davos as we're calling it
- 17:05Speaker 1: now or word economic forum to go from a four
- 17:08Speaker 1: forty four person event to a global phenomenon? What was
- 17:12Speaker 1: it that actually changed things that made it so popular
- 17:15Speaker 1: and so important to people to attend? I think if
- 17:19Speaker 1: I look over the last fifty years. It is the conviction,
- 17:27Speaker 1: UH said the big issues in the world need a
- 17:32Speaker 1: collaborative approach. UM. Business has to interact with government leaders.
- 17:37Speaker 1: But also if you want to plan long term, you
- 17:42Speaker 1: have to know how customers feel, how the young generation feels,
- 17:49Speaker 1: what experts are thinking. So doubles it became a place
- 17:55Speaker 1: where you really could absolve what the future will bring you.
- 17:59Speaker 1: I think UH, intellectual or contextual intelligence as I would,
- 18:05Speaker 1: to know what's going on, not only now, that what
- 18:10Speaker 1: will happen in the future. To connect the dots became
- 18:14Speaker 1: more and more important for business leaders when they looked
- 18:18Speaker 1: at the long term strategies. Over the years the fifty
- 18:21Speaker 1: years or so, have there been one or two or
- 18:24Speaker 1: three events that have happened at thats where a global
- 18:27Speaker 1: leader of one country met with a global leader of
- 18:30Speaker 1: another country and actually as a result of peace, agreement
- 18:33Speaker 1: broke out or something like that happened. Is that happened
- 18:36Speaker 1: very much? It happens UM. For example, UM, we at
- 18:41Speaker 1: a very critical moment thirty years ago, we prevented probably
- 18:45Speaker 1: a war between tokey increase, even if unfortunately we didn't
- 18:50Speaker 1: or any monst city. UM. We were the only platform
- 18:55Speaker 1: for many years, which part is really leadership and see
- 19:00Speaker 1: that leadership together in Davos. As you know, David, we
- 19:04Speaker 1: try UM always to be a platform of good services.
- 19:11Speaker 1: I would even say in bis Pestiss tradition, because like
- 19:16Speaker 1: Switzerland's the world econry form is independent, impartial and non political.
- 19:23Speaker 1: So many people that build organizations like yours has been
- 19:26Speaker 1: over fifty years now, they want them to continue forever.
- 19:30Speaker 1: What do you hope will happen subsequently you're not being
- 19:33Speaker 1: the executive chair? Will I continue or can it not
- 19:36Speaker 1: continue without you? I have built a very strong government
- 19:40Speaker 1: structural not only with the board of trustees, but also
- 19:44Speaker 1: with the managing world. The foom UM is now an
- 19:48Speaker 1: organization with offices around the world in China, Tokyo, US
- 19:56Speaker 1: twice and also we have our center for the f
- 20:00Speaker 1: Sincesty Revolution in San Francisco. UM. I think many capable people,
- 20:08Speaker 1: and if something happened to me, I think the spirit
- 20:13Speaker 1: would survive. What is it you're most proud of having
- 20:18Speaker 1: created over the fifty year period of time. It's a
- 20:20Speaker 1: gathering place or a network of our community. What is
- 20:23Speaker 1: it that makes you most proud of what you've done?
- 20:25Speaker 1: I think many many examples where we took an initiative
- 20:33Speaker 1: for we pro wided solution. I'm personally very proud, maybe
- 20:39Speaker 1: as an academic, that stakehold of capitalism is now broadly
- 20:46Speaker 1: accepted and has been even um in sicna Kais is
- 20:57Speaker 1: shown as being involved more robust model for the business
- 21:04Speaker 1: compared to one company which is only aiming at short
- 21:09Speaker 1: term profits. Class. Now, when you call somebody, any head
- 21:13Speaker 1: of state in the world, or you email anybody, does
- 21:15Speaker 1: it take more than five minutes or two minutes or
- 21:18Speaker 1: a minute for you to get a call back? Because
- 21:20Speaker 1: you know everybody knows you, everybody wants to talk to you.
- 21:22Speaker 1: How hard is it for you to get anybody on
- 21:23Speaker 1: the phone? I assume not too hard. I would say
- 21:26Speaker 1: it's not too hot, but certainly not if it's in
- 21:28Speaker 1: a minute, or sometimes it takes a week, but certainly
- 21:39Speaker 1: most people see I have met every leader probably around
- 21:43Speaker 1: the world. We see exception of the last pope I
- 21:47Speaker 1: tried to take out of all those meetings, um the
- 21:51Speaker 1: very best and um David, if I may, um, when
- 21:57Speaker 1: you meet those people who ask your self what is
- 22:01Speaker 1: actually what? What what makes the leader? Today? I have
- 22:06Speaker 1: a very simple definition it takes brains, soul, heart, and muscles.
- 22:14Speaker 1: Now supremes stands for professionalism. You have to know what
- 22:19Speaker 1: you are dealing with. Uh See. Soul stands for having
- 22:25Speaker 1: a compass which gives your direction. It may be a vision,
- 22:28Speaker 1: it's your values. And the heart is for passion. You
- 22:32Speaker 1: have to be passionate about what you are doing. And
- 22:35Speaker 1: the muscles is for being able to implement um your ideas,
- 22:41Speaker 1: your vision, to translate your values. And I have to
- 22:45Speaker 1: say when I look around in the world all the
- 22:48Speaker 1: leaders I have met, so actually the only way if
- 22:51Speaker 1: you who respond to all four citeria. But again, the
- 22:58Speaker 1: person who is out standing sevest lower model is certainly
- 23:03Speaker 1: knows of Mandela Well. I may just conclude by saying
- 23:06Speaker 1: I've met a lot of great leaders as well, but
- 23:08Speaker 1: I would also say one that I know who has brains, soul,
- 23:13Speaker 1: heart and muscle is Klaus Schwab. So congratulations on what
- 23:17Speaker 1: you have done, Klauss. I hope you're very proud of
- 23:19Speaker 1: what you've built and I look forward to seeing you
- 23:21Speaker 1: not too too long for now. Thank you way how
- 23:24Speaker 1: much Stavord and you've been listening to Klaus Schwab. He's
- 23:28Speaker 1: founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum on
- 23:31Speaker 1: the David Rubinstein Show Peer to peer conversations, and that's
- 23:36Speaker 1: it for this hour of Bloomberg Best And I'm Denise Pere.
- 23:40Speaker 1: This is