Davos: Air of change

They’re all at it. It must be something in the air. Or, at least something in that pure Swiss Alpine air.

Yes, the World Economic Forum launches today, in Davos-Klosters, so all the global entries into Who’s Who have gathered to have a chinwag about hope.

Teeing up this gathering of business leaders, politicians and civil society, was Bill Clinton who wrote this weekend in the FT that social problems must be solved through capitalism. Companies, he argued, have shifted their corporate culture from promoting social responsibility to increasing shared value.

Hard on his heels was Bill Gates, doing the rounds this morning on radio. Speaking on the Today Programme, he said capitalism was a “phenomenal system” because it allowed him to “innovate, hire his friends and build a company like Microsoft that spans the world”. Had he been alive, I’m sure Steve Jobs would have said the same. Apple’s pre-tax profits, announced last night, showed a 118% rise on the three months to the end of December compared with the same period in 2010.

Whether capitalism and civil society can work together successfully is a complicated argument to be had another time. But, the overarching question that arises from Davos is, do you trust those gathering to make decisions that have, in the past, benefited the few and not the many? It pays to go to Davos. Indeed, only those who can afford the fees are able to attend. Bill Gates doesn’t just have to hire his friends, he can have a jolly with them too.

And his friends might be 2,000 or so of the top brains in their field but 2,000 or so of the top brains in their field failed to predict the current economic crisis which has plunged more people into poverty than ever before – an economic crisis born out of a long history of economic, financial and political mismanagement and presided over by many of the same people.

Do we trust Gates to lead the charge in this marriage of money-making and corporate responsibility? For example, he has, on the staff of his philanthropic organisation, Rob Horsch, who was previously Vice President for International Development Partnerships at Monsanto. That’s the company with well-documented endeavours in the developing world that have failed to produce significant crop yields and have cost farmers their season’s crop – and in some cases their lives.

Yes, there is definitely change in the air, but all signs suggest we may end up breathing in the same old stench.