Deliberations at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month did not go entirely as planned, but few of the 2,400 people attending the meeting were deterred by the plunging market. In this opinion piece, management professor Michael Useem, who directs Wharton's Center for Leadership and Change Management and who attended the forum, discusses how Davos has emerged as a "classroom on globalization." Among the key lessons from this year's class: Central bankers have lost their way; sovereign wealth, hedge and private equity funds are the new power brokers; and no new authority should be put in control.
I was about to board a flight to London and then onto Zurich for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. With a final check of the Internet, my laptop screen lit up with headlines of financial crises, sparked by sub-prime woes and, we would later learn, rogue trading at Société Générale. The Frankfurt and Mumbai stock exchanges had dropped 7% in a single day. The European Wall Street Journal headlined the stunning developments: "Stocks in Europe, Asia hammered by U.S. woes; more downside seen and recession fears; 'panic' out there."
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