If Davos went on for a couple of weeks I think I would have a global business in no time at all. I honestly never thought it was possible to shake hands with so many billionaires in a day… Today was really informative on numerous levels. After very little sleep (I have not managed to get more than 4 hours a night since being here - not cool!) I headed over to the Belvedere. I managed to bump into Jet Li again after just sending him an email. It was fantastic as I met his right hand man. A young Chinese chat that was clearly incredibly cleaver and passionate about his work. I really pitched to him the One Young World was Chinas first ever opportunity to have proportionate representation of their population at a global event. Not only that it is a way to give young Chinese people a powerful voice in the world. It is my aim that One Young World could be a young Davos or a ‘youth Kyoto’ where young people can mobilize their voice and views to really have an international impact. With people like Jet on board, the Tom Cruise of Asia, this by no means is a utopian dream.
Following this I went along to the British business leaders lunch. I was impressed how how large the British representation was at Davos. Three was probably 100 people in the room. I imagine this is less than half of our representatives also. Peter Mandelson, gave a long and very impressive analysis of the UK economy. Although I cant go into details of what he said I was impressed by his intelligence as well as his passion for the UK economy. There were loads of UK business leaders I recognised, the room was certainly a powerful one. We heard some interesting thoughts about buying British, protectionism and the future. Being here in Davos it occurs to me that nobody really knows what is going on in the world. All these ‘business leaders’ seem to be in rather a state of shock at the speed and depth of this recession. I heard that this year will be the first year since 1982 that the global economy will shrink. I think we are living in unprecedented time and Davos just confirms that even the most successful, most intelligent and most experienced leaders on the planet really lack good ideas on a unified way forward. I would sum up the general Davos feeling in one word: confusion.
Enough on the economy - I get really bored by all the recession chat. People that make it their business to moan about the recession are never going to see the countless opportunities that exist out there. My view is simple - lets take the economy on head on, with an attitude of innovation and entrepreneurialism and see the positive aspects that exist in every market and industry.
Following Mandelson’s speech I managed to have a chat with him. I mentioned that he was supposed to launch One Young World in India on 22nd January. He seemed to really like the idea. I was telling him all about it much to the dismay of all the journalists standing around him that wanted to steer back the conversation to less optimistic things like the recession! Following this I spoke to a few of the journalist one of the senior people at the FT told me how the future of the newspaper industry is very shaky as nobody wants to pay for content they read. I can only see this getting more of a problem in the future as my generation certainly don’t like paying for newspapers when they expect to be able to get it for free online. Something occurred to me here; if there is less money in the media industry there will have to be less journalists which will mean either the quality of coverage will decrease OR/AND the role of ordinary people, bloggers, social networks will over take this industry in reporting news as it happens. I am sure that anyone going into journalism today that is not up on new media channels will have a difficult career ahead of themselves.
I managed to speak to some very senior people at various companies about One Young World, Including Peter Morgan from BT. He really liked the concept so I am going to see him on my return to London. As I was walking out I ran into Lakshmi Mittal on the stairs. Immediately I jumped on the opportunity. I had have met him before (briefly) at the Emerging India Awards so I mentioned this. He seemed to really get and really like One Young World. Again especially the fact it will be India’s opportunity to shine as a future economy. He asked his assistant (the lovely Selina) to follow up with me. I managed to get an hour with Selina and she loved it all. Looking positive. Selina then set up a meeting with Aditya Mittal and myself. This went really well. WE had about 20 minutes together. I offered him the opportunity to potentially be a counsellor if he could sponsor the Indian delegation. His eyes lit up when he thought that he would represent next gene India and share a platform with people like Geldof, Tutu and Annan… This again is one to watch.
I then had a great chat with Mohammad Yunus again. I told him that I work with Baba Amte through Take Heart (www.TakeHeartIndia.org). He knew Baba well and described him as a saint. This was so nice for me to hear!
George Osborne questioned me on whether it would be good for the UK only having 13 delegates out of 1500. But the more I explained to him how it was the UK’s opportunity for us to demonstrate to the world that we are a thought leader in developing the world future generations it was more like music to his ears. He has put me in touch with a person the Conservatives office. Who knows who will be in power on February 8-10th 2010!
I then caught up with the India crew at the Infosys party. I spoke to Nandan Nilekani, Co Chairman of Infosys about the concept and asked the company to sponsor (no beating around the bush). I think i will get to have a meeting with him next time I am in Bangalore. The food at the party was incredible - they had flown over a Michelin chef from London. First time I have ever tried Chocolate Prawns. I met some amazing people at this party. I followed up with Vijay Mallya who sort of bragged that he was about to jump in his helicopter to fly home. He really makes me laugh as he is the king of Indian new money - flash with the cash.. Very talented guy though and the master of personal branding.
I met David Aikman who heads up Young Global Leaders (YGLs). Davis is certainly one of the most interesting people I have met in Davos. Hugely dedicated and hugely passionate. He kicked it off immediately. He knew all about One Young World and was obviously a very big fan. I discussed it all at length with him and we decided that it was vital that we try to stick to our guns in selecting delegates in proportion to the worlds population. Then something really cool happened, he was asking about my back ground and I mentioned Take Heart and my connection to Baba Amte in passing. David stopped me and told the story of how he had visited Baba Amte’s centres 7 years ago and it had changed his view of the world. We really connected on this and I promised that I would show him round next time he visited. We really do live in a small interconnected world. After chatting with David and his wife for about 45 minutes another person joined us and asked me if I was YGL. David immediately said that I was high up on his radar. This was such an honour for me to hear. I have now firmly got becoming a YGL in my sights. It is a phenomenal platform for social good. I think I am still too young and inexperienced but one day I hope I will have the honour to join these remarkable people. Most of them are between the age of 35-40.
Yet another phenomenal day in the unreal world of Davos. Now for the Google party…
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