Klaus Schwab, chairman of the World Economic Forum, was blasted by Elon Musk after Schwab talked about needing to “master the future.”
Schwab made the comments during a “cultural leaders” event, which almost exclusively highlights climate change activism.
He said, “We couldn’t meet at a more challenging time. We are confronted with so many crises simultaneously. What does it need to master the future? I think to have a platform, where all stakeholders of global society are engaged; governments, business, civil society, young generation, and I could go on, I think is a first step to meet all the challenges.”
Responding to this not-at-all sinister-sounding proclamation, Elon Musk took to Twitter to call Schwab out and even draw attention to WEF’s irrelevance. Musk said, “‘Master of the Future’ doesn’t sound ominous at all. How is WEF/Davos even a thing? Are they trying to be the boss of Earth!?”
I’m skeptical of anything that can’t be explained in a sentence. What exactly do they do? And why? https://t.co/F7e2zomKxv
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) January 16, 2023
Schwab has been the center of debate amongst academic, cultural, political and business leaders, as he has thrust the idea of stakeholder capitalism upon the world stage. The idea of stakeholder capitalism shares many attributes with capitalism, except for one huge detail. Very simply put, stakeholder capitalism seeks to gauge the performance of a company on how well that organization upholds leftist, globalist, environmentalist and social justice values.
According to “Davos Manifesto 2020: The Universal Purpose of a Company in the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” stakeholder capitalism’s goals as forming and reforming organizaitons with the following attributes:
A company is more than an economic unit generating wealth. It fulfils human and societal aspirations as part of the broader social system. Performance must be measured not only on the return to shareholders, but also on how it achieves its environmental, social and good governance objectives. Executive remuneration should reflect stakeholder responsibility.
A company that has a multinational scope of activities not only serves all those stakeholders who are directly engaged, but acts itself as a stakeholder – together with governments and civil society – of our global future. Corporate global citizenship requires a company to harness its core competencies, its entrepreneurship, skills and relevant resources in collaborative efforts with other companies and stakeholders to improve the state of the world.
