Good morning.
The main reason so many CEOs come to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, each year has mostly to do with efficiency. By scheduling a frantic succession of meetings, they can see more of their customers, suppliers, partners and peers in a few days than they normally see in months.
But Davos also forces CEOs to step back and take a broader view of their place in society. That was evident in a dinner Fortune hosted last night, where 60 global CEOs spent two hours sharing thoughts on the top risks and opportunities facing business in the decade ahead. The top topics:
—Accelerating technological change. The CEOs highlighted the extraordinary opportunity for technology to address pressing health, environmental and societal issues, but also highlighted the dangers of social media, the risks of irresponsible A.I., and the possibility of biotechnology being weaponized. As technology accelerates, both the ability to create problems and the ability to solve them grows.
—Rising inequality. As change accelerates, the gap between those who benefit from it and those who don’t is growing. As Grab CEO Anthony Tan put it: “The legacy of the pandemic has left income inequality in a really bad place. And as a consequence, we see polarization, we see extremism rise. That causes social fragility.” Business can’t prosper in a fragile society.
—A deteriorating climate. 2023 marks the year that the business community in Davos got serious about the climate. While ESG may be generating political pushback in the US, there wasn’t a CEO to be found in Davos who wasn’t fully embracing the business effort to try and reach net zero by 2050.
The consensus that emerged from the conversation was best captured by trip.com CEO Jane Sun, who quoted a Confucian saying: “Risk is opportunity.” The combination of extraordinary advances in technology, an existential climate threat, volatile geopolitics and fractious societies present business with a challenge in the next decade to turn unprecedented risk into unprecedented opportunity.
I’ll provide a more detailed report on Monday. Other news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
