ABSTRACT
As the World Economic Forum looks to the future midway through its fourth decade of operation, the chief developer of its strategic vision remains Klaus Schwab. The significance of Schwab’s leadership role and of what he has created over thirty-five years should not be underestimated. When introducing Professor Schwab at the 2005 India Economic Summit, Dhruv Sawhney, Chair and Managing Director of Triveni Engineering, said that Schwab had “created a United Nations of business, political and other global leaders of civil society.” Schwab’s name is mentioned increasingly often as a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize, indicating a broad international recognition of his skilful stewardship of a type of institution for which there was no precedent. Schwab continues to lead by articulating a clear vision of the Forum’s evolving role in a changing world. Three recent texts, all or partially by Professor Schwab, indicate clearly what he sees as the main challenges facing the Forum, how he proposes to meet those challenges and where he wants the Forum to go. An internal newsletter that Schwab wrote to staff in early fall 2005 was the basis for a strategic document entitled “Roadmap 2008,” which the Forum’s Foundation Board approved in early November 2005. These documents reflect Schwab’s vision for the Forum itself. In a presentation that he made at the India Economic Summit at the end of November 2005 to a panel session entitled “Global Challenges and India,” Schwab articulated a sweeping view of ten great global challenges, how global governance can meet the challenges, and how the Forum can play a role in that governance. But Schwab’s strategic vision for the Forum begs another equally important question: whither the Forum after Schwab is no longer the Forum’s chief strategic architect? What has been the Forum’s greatest strength becomes in another sense its
greatest uncertainty looking ahead. This chapter discusses both the Forum’s future in the world, as envisaged by Klaus Schwab, and the second key question facing the Forum: its future after Schwab’s retirement.
