3 Essential Davos Themes for Communicators & Businesses

Topics
Strategy
Expert
Sarah Babbitt
VP
Share this post

Every year, world and business leaders gather at The World Economic Forum. They discuss ways to make progress on the world’s largest issues — issues that have become increasingly important to how businesses conduct themselves and communicate with stakeholders.

The discussions are a good reminder that everything a business does — not just the messages and stories they craft — is Public Relations. All their actions merge to shape the public’s perception of them.

It’s why Davos themes are critical to consider, and here are three that stood out to us from the 2021 agenda:

Stakeholder Capitalism

2020 made clear that stakeholders care deeply about and evaluate spending decisions against businesses’ societal efforts.

This ‘stakeholder capitalism’ was a major Davos discussion point. The WEF is advancing it through a set of standardized Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) business goals. This year, over 60 companies (representing over $4 billion in market cap) signed on to start reporting on this framework.

Takeaway: Businesses in every sector would be wise to make ESG a key pillar of their business plans and communications., As WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab stated:

I think 2021 will be a historical year in terms of changing the philosophy of business…. If we want to restore trust the key condition is to show that when we work together, we work not only for our own interest but for society’s interest and for the interest of everybody who works together with us.”

For more:

Mental Health & Wellness

The events of 2020 added to an already-growing global mental health crisis. The millions who lost jobs, women and those categorized as low-income were most likely to be impacted. However, people across the board were affected. In Deloitte’s Global Millennial Survey, 48% of Gen-Z and 44% of all Millennials said that they felt stressed or anxious all or most of the time.

Takeaway: Mental health is an issue business need to prioritize and address, with solutions, programs and communications that help remove the stigma and provide relief. For more:

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Technology companies are no stranger to harnessing AI, IoT, robotics, 5G and other breakthrough technologies for their products and in their marketing. However, Davos continues to reinforce technology-driven revolution as an important topic.

Takeaway: These technologies are an opportunity for the technology sector to make a greater connection to humanity; to show how these technologies are fundamentally changing the world and improving lives. They must be part of a strategic (and elevated) narrative.

As Ronan Dunne, EVP and Group CEO of Verizon Wireless wrote on the WEF site,

If there were ever a moment for tech to change this narrative and bend the arc of its own history, this is it. Some might expect tech to be the last place to look for meaningful advances in social equality, but the arrival of 5G and related technologies offers a once in a generation opportunity for precisely such advances, from precisely such a place.

For more:

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

More Insights

All Posts
All Posts
Post

Political Commentary vs. Silence: Data on Brand Strategies

Post
Post

Communicating a Business Pivot

Post
Post

How To Use B2B Influencer Marketing

Post
Post

Political Commentary vs. Silence: Data on Brand Strategies

Post
Post

Communicating a Business Pivot

Post
No items found.
No items found.

Ready to Shift Ahead?