Page 64 - How We Lead Matters

Coming Together

It’s a bit outrageous to think that someone one day would decide that he is
going to get together a special club and hold a meeting once a year at the foot
of a mountain in Switzerland to solve the world’s problems. That is how the
vision has unfolded for Klaus Schwab, who created the concept of the World
Economic Forum in 1971.
To recognize that our most pressing problems are too complex for any
one sector of society to solve and to create a place where real work can be
undertaken voluntarily by world leaders was indeed visionary. I have always
credited the forum with being one of my formative leadership experiences and
was honored to participate as co-chair in 2004 to help advance its mission.
Students of leadership would find a fascinating subject in Klaus
Schwab. What I admire most about him is that he has never made himself
the center of the forum. The participants, their thoughts, and their collabo-
rations are paramount. For that reason, the World Economic Forum has
become a model of global cooperation for all time.
Like magicians with their adroit movements, Klaus is a master at focus-
ing all attention on the object at hand whether it be peace, social responsi-
bility, economic vitality, or world health. He lends his vision, he attracts the
audience, he sets the stage, and, most important, he lets the magic take over.
It is indeed “amazing,” as Harry Truman once said, “to see what you can
accomplish when you don’t care who gets the credit.”

Marilyn Carlson Nelson 47