For any onlookers it must have appeared a strange spectacle.
In 1999, best-selling author Paulo Coelho, who wrote "The Alchemist," was failing in Russia. That year he sold only about 1,000 books, and his Russian publisher dropped him. But after he found another, Coelho took a radical step. On his own Web site, launched in 1996, he posted a digital Russian copy of "The Alchemist."
By the final day of this year's World Economic Forum, people were joking that the world had gone through a full economic cycle in the four days the conference had been underway. After a Monday on which global markets seemed in freefall, by Friday the Dow average amazingly showed a tiny gain for the week. Klaus Schwab, the paternalistic overseer of each year's Forum, was proudly talking of a "Davos effect" on world markets.
The world will weather its financial storm, but must battle climate change, poverty and conflict to reap a new "industrial revolution," the global business elite said Sunday, trying to dispel pessimism that has hung over a major meeting in Switzerland.
Collaborative innovation may have been the theme of this year's event in Davos, but it's the threat of global recession that is the main topic of conversation as the event begins. CNN's Becky Anderson, Charles Hodson and Richard Quest will be bringing you extensive coverage of the event throughout the week.
Global finance chiefs drove home warnings over the market crisis Saturday, as concerns of a possible recession continued to trouble a meeting of world powerbrokers in Switzerland.
CNN's Recession-o-meter -- our unscientific poll of financial experts at the World Economic Forum at Davos -- has spoken. And it's decided that the world economy is in slowdown, not recession.
A significant number of the bankers, regulators, credit agencies and other key players whose errors, omissions and greed contributed to the current financial crisis are at the World Economic Forum in Davos - and they all seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet.
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates announced a new direction Friday as he pledged $306 million in grants to develop farming in poor countries, leading the charge for corporate responsibility at a major meeting of business chiefs.
Economic worries were the main topic of conversation among CEOs and politicians at the start of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, and it seems to be one of the top issues on your minds, too.
For any onlookers it must have appeared a strange spectacle.
In 1999, best-selling author Paulo Coelho, who wrote "The Alchemist," was failing in Russia. That year he sold only about 1,000 books, and his Russian publisher dropped him. But after he found another, Coelho took a radical step. On his own Web site, launched in 1996, he posted a digital Russian copy of "The Alchemist."
By the final day of this year's World Economic Forum, people were joking that the world had gone through a full economic cycle in the four days the conference had been underway. After a Monday on which global markets seemed in freefall, by Friday the Dow average amazingly showed a tiny gain for the week. Klaus Schwab, the paternalistic overseer of each year's Forum, was proudly talking of a "Davos effect" on world markets.
The world will weather its financial storm, but must battle climate change, poverty and conflict to reap a new "industrial revolution," the global business elite said Sunday, trying to dispel pessimism that has hung over a major meeting in Switzerland.
Collaborative innovation may have been the theme of this year's event in Davos, but it's the threat of global recession that is the main topic of conversation as the event begins. CNN's Becky Anderson, Charles Hodson and Richard Quest will be bringing you extensive coverage of the event throughout the week.
Global finance chiefs drove home warnings over the market crisis Saturday, as concerns of a possible recession continued to trouble a meeting of world powerbrokers in Switzerland.
CNN's Recession-o-meter -- our unscientific poll of financial experts at the World Economic Forum at Davos -- has spoken. And it's decided that the world economy is in slowdown, not recession.
A significant number of the bankers, regulators, credit agencies and other key players whose errors, omissions and greed contributed to the current financial crisis are at the World Economic Forum in Davos - and they all seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet.
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates announced a new direction Friday as he pledged $306 million in grants to develop farming in poor countries, leading the charge for corporate responsibility at a major meeting of business chiefs.
Economic worries were the main topic of conversation among CEOs and politicians at the start of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, and it seems to be one of the top issues on your minds, too.
"I am not just a noise polluter, I am a noise-polluting, diesel-soaking, gulfstream-flying rock star."
They may have ridden to the rescue of Citigroup and Merrill Lynch in the past couple of months, but the rise of so-called sovereign wealth funds - huge state investment vehicles from places like Russia, Kuwait and Singapore with billions of dollars to invest - has sparked a nervous reaction in the U.S. and prompted official calls for the funds to be subject to an international code of conduct.
Viewpoint: Global leaders still flock to the annual World Economic Forum. But they no longer shape the global agenda
"In many crucial areas, the world is getting better...but it's not getting better fast enough, and it's not getting better for everyone," Bill Gates said in Davos on Thursday as he called for a more concerted global drive toward what he calls "Creative Capitalism." He said that companies, especially the biggest ones, can improve the lot of the world's least privileged by better aligning their self-interest with the good of society.
What will be the biggest question asked at Davos this year? The environment, economic development and energy security will all be hot topics discussed by the rich and powerful who will gather in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum from January 23 to 27.
If there's a sweet smell at this year's Global Economic Forum, it's unlikely to be success.
Bleak forecasts for the global economy dominated Wednesday's opening of the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, but business and government leaders were divided over the possibility of a global recession.
DAVOS: Given worldwide financial jitters, I think the sense of urgency at Davos is palpable. If there was ever a need to have an intelligent truly global debate, it is now. The issues here are pressing and real-time. Attendees from outside the U.S. are feeling penalized, and there is real concern that the U.S. doesn't have the leadership to respond properly, and that that response may become overly political given the ongoing campaign.
There's a lot of snow in Davos for this year's World Economic Forum, but a noticeable lack of the usual sunny American optimism about economic prospects.
Avalanching global markets were expected to come crashing onto the agenda in the Swiss ski resort of Davos this week as world leaders and big business names gathered for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.
From January 23 to 27 the sleepy Swiss town of Davos will be overrun with some of the biggest names in business and politics for five days of talking, networking, schmoozing and skiing.
Tony Blair will lead a prestigious panel in a unique CNN and World Economic Forum joint debate, to be televised on CNN from this year's event in Davos.
With over 200 public figures attending this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, the Swiss town is set to be a real-life who's who of international statesmen and politicians. Below we've profile a few of this year's big hitters.
Naomi Klein's 2000 book "No Logo" galvanized a generation to resist the lure of brands and corporatization.
Michael Dell was mingling in Davos, Switzerland, this winter when he spotted the blogger Jeff Jarvis and went over to apologize. It had been nearly two years since Jarvis posted a series of irate m...
If you were scripting a Wall Street movie, what kind of characters would you include? Perhaps a perfectly tanned, hard-charging executive with a reputation for wearing his ambition on his sleeve, o...
If you were scripting a Wall Street movie, what kind of characters would you include? Perhaps a perfectly tanned, hard-charging executive with a reputation for wearing his ambition on his sleeve, or a struggling CEO stuck in the shadow of his predecessor, or a glamour-puss anchorwoman who worked her way from cloakroom girl to worldwide celebrity, or a Saudi prince, or a billionaire media magnate plotting a new power play? Add a corporate jet and whispers of shenanigans at 35,000 feet, and you've got a certified blockbuster.
Every trend in the business world follows an all-too-predictable hype cycle. The current hoopla over private-equity buyouts of public companies is no exception.
I was sitting in a session at Davos idly doing e-mail when I suddenly slapped my laptop closed and listened, amazed. Nestle CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, on stage, was asserting that global warming doesn't much matter, that Al Gore deliberately omitted contradictory information from his movie "An Inconvenient Truth," and that the world would be better off using money it is spending to comply with the Kyoto Protocol to improve water supplies.
I'll reiterate what I said in a feature story I wrote for the current issue of Fortune - Second Life is important not because it resembles a game, or because of how many people are signing up, or the big companies starting to do business inside it. What convinces me it is one of the most significant technology breakthroughs in history is that it is a platform on top of which users can create their own software and content, realize their ideas, and even make money.
By far the glossiest, most glamorous part of the Clinton Foundation is an offshoot called the Clinton Global Initiative, a celebrity and CEO-studded conference held in New York City each September. This year's event, Sept. 20 to 22, will be the second CGI, and it's expected to draw some 1,000 eminences, ranging from executives (Rupert Murdoch, Josef Ackermann) to activists (Carl Pope of the Sierra Club) to governmental types (Jacques Chirac, Laura Bush, and most likely Hank Paulson, whose wife, Wendy, went to college with Hillary Clinton).
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
The Grand Ballroom at the Pierre Hotel in New York City is an unlikely place to hear people talk about "clubbin'," particularly when they're Wall Streeters wearing expensive suits. But that was the...
The grand ballroom at the Pierre Hotel in New York is an unlikely place to hear people talk about going clubbin', particularly when they're a bunch of Wall Street types wearing expensive suits.
You may know the scene from the bitterly satiric 1976 movie "Network:" The CEO of a big media conglomerate, Arthur Jensen (played by Ned Beatty), calls raving anchorman Howard Beale (Peter Finch) into a darkened boardroom for a tongue-lashing.
Last week at Davos, Bill Gates suggested giving the world's poor cellphones--not PCs--to connect them to the Internet. But why limit the plan to the poor?
"It is just amazing how parochial Americans are," I heard a voice just in front of me say. "Amazing," agreed another.
Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry has urged his Democratic colleagues to unite and filibuster Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, but senators from both sides of the aisle said Friday that isn't going to happen.
Eric Pooley reports: If a session at Davos isn't absolutely great I start to wish I was up on the mountain instead of down in the Congress Center. Right now all thoughts of skiing have been banished: Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, John Chambers and Niklas Zennstrom are talking about the next phase in the tech revolution, and how they're making it pay.
Justin Fox reports: For members of the Old Media, Davos remains stuck in a blissful time warp where they still matter and there's no Matt Drudge or Instapundit or Daily Kos around to cause trouble. Genius that he is, World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab long ago swept the people who run the world's newspapers, magazines and TV networks into a tight embrace, and he's not letting go, at least not yet.
Google is not evil. You'd think it was the end of the world as we know it, to read many accounts of the company's decision this week to create a new version of Google inside China that will censor certain search terms at the request of the government.
More than 2,300 people are attending the 2006 World Economic Forum in Davos this week.
The World Economic Forum, a gathering of leaders from the business world, media, academics, and assorted hollywood stars and do-gooders, is taking place this week. Fortune Magazine's journalists will keep you apprised of developments.
CNN has begun a week of coverage dedicated to the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, including documentaries, live debate, interviews and regular news updates.
More than 2,300 business and and political leaders are heading for the annual World Economic Forum, which opens in the Swiss alpine resort of Davos on Wednesday and concludes on Sunday.
I was having some crispy duck and cold sesame noodles the other night when my eye fell on the adjacent table, where a couple was attending to one of those cute babies that appear on cue to harsh my...
Security was tight around the mountain town of Davos, Switzerland as global political and business leaders gathered for the annual World Economic forum.
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and rock star Bono joined forces Thursday in Davos an attempt to focus the world spotlight on the plight of Africa.
French President Jacques Chirac has warned that "silent tsunamis" of despair, such as unemployment, are plaguing the world, and called on those attending the World Economic Forum help others.
The United States must work more closely with other countries on their priorities, such as global warming, if it wants the rest of the world to support its agenda, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said.
Seldom have so many had such strong opinions about something they understand so poorly.
Seldom have so many had such strong opinions about something they understand so poorly.
"I do not see much hope in the political domain, but a lot of hope in the technological domain," said Shimon Peres last week at a private breakfast he hosted in a knotty wood-paneled ski-hotel dining room in Davos, Switzerland.
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has vowed to prosecute any Pakistani nuclear experts who passed their knowledge to other countries.
Iran's Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi says a number of ministers have tendered their resignations in an ongoing dispute over the disqualification of hundreds of pro-reform candidates.
Here in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum, technology has utterly lost the limelight. That's no surprise, considering that dot-com fever is a distant memory and that the leaders gathe...
As buck-wild party towns go, Davos is hardly Cannes. But this year at least a few Economic Forum luminaries got their groove on when the Soul Solution band played the main Saturday night Belvedere ...
For more information on these events, see fortune.com/calendar.
BACK IN NYC PREPPING FOR DAVOS, THIS YEAR AT THE WALDORF. IT HASN'T CHANGED. RATHER HOPE IT NEVER WILL. THE NICE PEOPLE FROM BUFFALO HAVE TO STAY SOMEWHERE. CALL ME A SNOB, CALL ME AT THE ST. REGIS...
God and business? Did you ever expect to see those two words on the cover of this magazine? Me neither. At FORTUNE our articles of faith are limited to belief in free trade, unfettered competition,...
NON-DEGREE PROGRAMS
There was plenty of news at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos: Antiglobalization protesters confronted Swiss police, Yasser Arafat excoriated Israel. And then there was this quiet little ann...
None of us at FORTUNE knew much about Michael Capellas when Compaq Computer's board named him CEO in July. The appointment of its former chief information officer was an anticlimactic finale to the...
Say goodbye to the PC industry as we know it. Microsoft's and Intel's chokehold is finally loosening. Frustrated by the duo's power over their business, PC makers are starting to remove the Wintel ...
JANUARY
So you've dined at Davos, keynoted at Comdex, and been written up as a Harvard Business School case study. But tell us this: Have you coined your own law?
To understand the importance of the Internet, consider this year's Davos World Economic Forum. Panel discussions of the Internet economy were standing room only at the annual gathering of world and...
A couple of years ago a pack of top dogs from the Conference Board stopped by to chew on ideas. At one point I asked what the business research group's member companies were worried or confused abo...
The 1990s may well be the Decade of Europe, an era when that energized and integrated continent offers more challenge and opportunity than either Asia or America. In this new Europe, the leading fo...
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