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THE MAESTRO
Running one of the world’s most influential non-profit organizations requires a high degree of patience and harmony. You have to coordinate the agendas of the public and private sectors, while keeping pace with an ever-changing world. It’s a challenge André Schneider faces every day as managing director and chief operating officer of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Geneva-based non-profit organization that facilitates dialogue between policymakers, the business community and civil society.
BY RÉHAB EL-BAKRY
André Schneider recalls that his career as a high-level executive at one of the world’s most prestigious organizations began on a very different path. “My first choice was to do classical music,” he says. After studying music at the Richard Strauss Konservatorium in Munich, the soft-spoken German built a reputation as a promising young musician, playing tuba in some of Europe’s most distinguished orchestras, including the Philharmonic Orchestra of Berlin. “I was very fortunate to have a very quick career, having the chance to be admitted to one of the best conservatories and then playing with [some of] Europe’s biggest orchestras,” he says.
But after five years, Schneider – seeking new challenges – decided to shift gears and focus instead on information technology. He completed a PhD in computer science at the University of Geneva in 1993. He went on to research high-energy physics while working as a consultant and developer for IBM.
He began working at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 1998 as an information officer, soon rising up the ranks within the organization. He was promoted to director of resources and knowledge management in 2000, a position he held for three years before being promoted to managing director and chief operating officer (COO).
Established in 1971, the World Economic Forum is a Geneva-based non-profit organization that facilitates dialogue between policymakers, the business community and civil society. The WEF hosts an annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland to discuss issues impacting economic and social development worldwide. There are also regional meetings held during the year, which address topics of local concern to the main stakeholders in each area.
But being COO is not just ensuring that the day-to-day workings of the WEF run smoothly. Schneider is in charge of monitoring various projects that the organization initiates worldwide, such as the WEF’s Middle East Strategy, launched in 2003. He is also in charge of a WEF initiative to identify the next generation of multinationals emerging from fast developing parts of the world, including Latin America, Asia and most recently the Middle East. The project aims at identifying 1,000 up-and-coming multinationals as well as helping them overcome their challenges while retaining their core values.
“This is a very important project,” he says. “Our core membership [at the WEF] is the 1,000 most important big companies and multinationals. We feel that there is more movement in this group, so we wanted to look at the next generation of them. We think that multinational companies, which are growing strong and are starting to internationalize, have very specific needs. We know that it’s not easy to expand worldwide and to maintain this growth without losing some of the core elements.”
Region in focus
Schneider explains that the importance of the regional meetings is to get as many local parties involved as possible. In fact, this was one of the main reasons behind setting up the WEF on the Middle East. The first Middle East conference was held in 1979 following the signing of the Camp David Accords. The WEF continued to be active in the region indirectly through government involvement in its other meetings, but it wasn’t until 2003, following the US-led invasion of Iraq, that a decision was made to re-focus on the region.
“I think we felt strongly that we have to come back, because it’s not always possible in the Davos meeting to focus on [the region’s issues],” he explains. “In Davos, we want to have representatives from all over the world, so actually the number of non-government representatives is much lower than what we have [in the regional] meetings. So we started in 2003 in Jordan and had three meetings there and then we came to Sharm Al Sheikh in 2006, went back to Jordan in 2007, and we are now back in Sharm Al Sheikh.”
Schneider argues that the timing of the WEF’s return to the region makes sense. The Middle East has experienced tremendous economic development over the past 10 years, combined with social and political change. And whenever changes take place, dialogue is needed in order for policies to be formed that meet the needs of all parties involved. “Business isn’t just an economic actor; it needs to take a much larger role,” he points out. “I think what we want to [achieve] out of our meetings and activities is to really highlight this role. Secondly, I think for this region to sustain its role [in the global economy] and for it to address challenges, it needs a strong private sector-based economy, not a [public sector-dominated one].”
The key will be for all actors in the region to identify exactly how to involve the private sector in the policymaking process. The experience of the West has illustrated that having a strong private sector is important and having the government function primarily as a regulator – as opposed to a player – in the business sector, is an effective arrangement. However, the region needs to develop its own formula to achieve a balance in interests.
The private sector is becoming the number one engine for growth, he says. “I think the governments in the region are advised to look at other examples and say: ‘our role is to give the framework.’” But even then, he says, the framework has to be developed in consultation with the private sector. This way the government’s role becomes restricted to creating a suitable business environment and guaranteeing its sustainability. “The second [role] that guarantees sustainability is ensuring that the opportunities are extended to the whole population and not limited to a specific group or area in society. The role of the government is to make sure that businesses are comfortable.”
Getting governments in the region to recognize their role in the new global economy is where the WEF steps in. It’s not the WEF’s role to dictate policies, Schneider says, but simply to help with the decision process and to place it within the global context of competitiveness. “So we actually look at the competitiveness of countries, meaning how well do they set the framework to allow businesses within each country to grow, and we look at the impact of these policies in comparison to others in the global economy.”
The WEF also advises governments on how to deal with global issues. For instance, this year’s World Economic Forum on the Middle East tackled rising food and energy prices, as well as growing concerns about industrial growth and sustainability of the environment.
Thinking globally
It is important to help governments form policies in response to changes taking place globally that impact their economies, Schneider says.
Using Egypt as the example, he says the recent economic reforms have been impressive, improving the country’s competitiveness and creating jobs. However, there needs to be more planning to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to benefit from these reforms and that those who are most vulnerable are protected. “Egypt is much more exposed to the [current] food crisis because the average salary is low and the part of food in the budget of a family is very high,” he says. “There needs to be regulations to actually ensure that some of the capital gains from the reforms are injected back into helping more people. These are things that are often discussed during WEF meetings and then different groups can share ideas on how to deal with a crisis like this.”
Moreover, WEF meetings facilitate the sharing of ideas and experiences of individuals from all over the world. Not only are decision-makers, as well as community and business leaders, present at the regional meeting, but so are their counterparts from all over the world. This helps place regional issues and dialogue in an international context. It also gives the WEF the ability to facilitate dialogue between different groups on neutral ground, such as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “This is an opportunity for different groups to exchange ideas and hear from the public on issues that might not necessarily get discussed in such a setting.”
While the forum facilitates the opportunity for dialogue, Schneider recognizes that simply attending is not enough. Participants must also be willing to implement the recommendations following each meeting. “The WEF will have as much impact as the people attending it and [their commitment] to go out and do what they are discussing,” he says. “That sometimes is a real challenge. Frankly, you can’t control that and sometimes we also have our disappointments. But on the other side, if you looked at all the initiatives that came out of the meetings, such as the Egyptian Education Initiative and many others, some of the [recommendations] are implemented. So, ideally, there will be the [attitude] of ‘we will take part and we will all make the right decisions immediately and everything will be perfect.’ But that’s not the way things happen. It takes much more time to build sustainable solutions that all parties – business, civil society and government – can agree to and then actually implement.”
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