World Economic Forum: A preview of Davos 2024

Thousands of top decision makers representing governments, business, and civil society from around the world are gathering in Davos Klosters, Switzerland, to address global issues and priorities for the coming year. During a McKinsey Live webinar, senior partners Tracy Francis and Daniel Pacthod outlined the six major themes driving McKinsey’s agenda at 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, which runs from January 15 to January 19:

1. Resilience. It’s a tough time to be a leader. To prosper, organizations, economies, and societies must be resilient. For organizations to innovate and thrive, their leaders must accelerate their resilience trajectories. This requires: understanding, measuring, and monitoring the organization; developing public-private partnerships to address challenges no entity can tackle alone; and building the resilience muscle with new leadership and organizational capabilities. For more on this topic, see our business resilience insights, including a new white paper, “Building a resilient tomorrow: Concrete actions for global leaders.”
2. Global energy transition. Solving climate change will require one of the largest capital reallocations in human history. Coming out of COP28, it’s clear that getting to net-zero emissions will require leaders to focus simultaneously on four imperatives: emissions reduction, affordability, reliability, and competitiveness. For more on the topic, see our sustainability insights, including the article “An affordable, reliable, competitive path to net zero.”
3. Generative AI. How should CEOs think about the potentially massive disruption of gen AI, which could unlock $4.4 trillion in global value? Among the principles leaders can use to drive their gen AI agendas: be intentional and set strategy from the top down; reimagine entire domains rather than isolated use cases; buy selectively, build strategically; and build products, not proofs of concept. For more on this topic, see “What CEOs need to know about gen AI.”
4. Reimagining globalization. McKinsey and The World Economic Forum recently launched the Global Cooperation Barometer, a tool that uses 42 metrics to measure the current state of global cooperation across five pillars: trade & capital; climate & nature; innovation & technology; health & wellness; and peace & security. While it shows that global cooperation has been remarkably resilient, it also makes clear that leaders must find new approaches for cooperating to address the global challenges ahead. For more on the topic, see the Global Cooperation Barometer report and “6 steps to build a more cooperative world.”
5. Empowerment gap. The need to raise living standards around the world is urgent. According to research by the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), closing the enormous gap in economic empowerment will require business-led economic growth, government spending, and private-public partnerships. For more on this topic, read the MGI report Climate Transition Impact Framework: Essential elements for an equitable and inclusive transition and view a McKinsey Live event on the topic.
6. Women’s health. The McKinsey Health Institute in collaboration with the World Economic Forum Center for Health and Healthcare unveiled groundbreaking new research sizing the health and economic potential of investing in women’s health. Women, on average, spend 25% more time in poor health than men. The report, released at the Annual Meeting in Davos, explores the root causes driving this discrepancy and outlines the actions needed to address the shortcomings that limit the ability of many women to live to their full potential. For more on this topic, read the report Closing the Women’s Health Gap: A $1 Trillion Opportunity to Improve Lives and Economies.

***

For more on these topics, read McKinsey and the World Economic Forum 2024.