EO Members Share Takeaways from 2023 WEF in Davos –

Within the picture: WEF’s Olivier Woeffray, Julia Devos and Stephan Mergenthaler with EO members John Metcalf, Troy Armour and Nikhil Hirdaramani in Davos, Switzerland.

The World Financial Discussion board (WEF)’s annual assembly in Davos, Switzerland convened leaders from enterprise, authorities and civil society dedicated to driving optimistic, tangible change for the long-term of our planet and the individuals who reside on it.

Although EO didn’t have an official presence on the January 2023 WEF annual assembly in Davos, 4 EO members attended, having been invited by different initiatives: Nikhil Hirdaramani (EO Sri Lanka and EO World Partnerships), Troy Armour (EO Europe Bridge), John Metcalf (EO San Antonio), and Pajani Singah (EO London).

We requested them to share takeaways from the assembly.

The SDG Lab

Nikhil Hirdaramani and Pajani Singah participated within the SDG Lab, which goals to promote the UN SDGs and brainstorm new concepts for selling them amongst small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) resembling EO-member corporations. Troy Armour additionally attended and shared his story with the SDG Lab.

“SDG Lab is a multi-stakeholder initiative that contributes to the implementation of the UN SDGs. We have been invited to take part by the World Leaders Initiative, which goals to carry key networks collectively to seek out options that tackle the challenges of sustainable growth. Throughout the 4 days of the SDG Lab in Davos, we labored with world leaders to create mutually useful options to handle the SDGs,” shared Pajani Singah and Nikhil Hirdaramani.

Nikhil continued: “We have been lucky to have two EO members who have been capable of display how they’re addressing the SDGs by their corporations – Pajani Singah and Troy Armour.”

• Pajani Singah’s firm, Amazonia Affect Ventures, was named Prime Innovation Winner of the World Financial Discussion board’s 2021 Tropical Forest Commodities Problem for defending the Amazon rainforest and enhancing the lives of its individuals by an modern finance firm that works immediately with indigenous communities within the rainforests.
• Troy Armour’s firm, Junk Kouture, has created an engaged, energetic, and provoking neighborhood of younger individuals working collectively to make a distinction in local weather change by discovering a brand new objective for discarded objects. Greater than 15,000 Junk Kouture designs have prevented an estimated 40,000kg of waste from going into landfills, and impressed youth from 35 international locations.

“At EO, we now have storytelling at our fingertips. We are able to simply share how our 17,000 members are addressing the UN SDGs with their companies,” Nikhil continued. “It was incredible that Troy might be on the SDG Lab with winners from the Junk Kouture competitors who got here dressed of their creations produced from discarded objects – offering a real-life instance of find out how to breathe new life into what would possibly in any other case have gone right into a landfill.

“As well as, SDG Lab contributors have been requested to help the creation of the SDG Olympic Video games for Local weather. They hope to launch it later in 2023. I shared EO’s GSEA mannequin; SDG Lab might take inspiration from that on find out how to run this new programme,” Nikhil shared.

Nikhil’s three general takeaways from Davos:

1. Bettering the state of the world is everybody’s enterprise, not simply massive enterprise.
2. There’s a want for the voice of entrepreneurs to be heard in Davos.
3. We’d like to verify all of the optimistic discussions flip into concrete actions with options.

Inspiring Creativity Amongst Youth

Troy Armour carried his firm’s message from youth to the interior circle at WEF, and even received among the Junk Kouture alumni a platform to talk and share their tales. Right here’s what Troy shared:

I used to be invited to Davos by Deloitte to talk on “how inspiring creativity amongst youth can drive modern sustainability options and assist towards attaining the SDGs.” One story I instructed was about Junk Kouture, the world’s largest youth sustainable vogue competitors, with a imaginative and prescient to counterpoint and empower the lives of younger individuals by creativity and sustainability.

I all the time weave EO into the story of Junk Kouture. I share how, in 2018, we skilled important employees points, even because the competitors was reaching its peak recognition in Eire. In late 2018, I let the entire staff go, and began over. My greatest realisation being that I wanted to put money into myself earlier than I could lead on others. That’s once I utilized to the EO Entrepreneurial Masters Program (EMP) at MIT in Boston.

At EMP, Brian Brault, our course chief, requested me, “Why Junk Kouture?” He saved asking why, and ultimately the realisation got here on: As a result of each a kind of youngsters are me, and I’m not going to allow them to down! In that second, EO modified the course of my life and my enterprise. In consequence, I employed a staff primarily based on the mantra that we existed to counterpoint and empower the lives of younger individuals. 

I went into EMP with a ‘millionaire’ mindset and got here out with a ‘billionaire’ mindset, and never simply in cash phrases: I consider I can impression one billion lives in a optimistic manner. That’s transformational for me but additionally for these one billion younger individuals — Junk Kouture went from a one-country occasion to now reaching younger individuals in 35 international locations. I’ve been lucky to inform this story at a number of occasions, together with three in Davos:  the Objectives Home Sustainable Trend Roundtable, the UN SDG Lab, and the Deloitte Haus presentation to 130 individuals at Deloitte C-level and their purchasers.

Total Takeaways from the WEF assembly in Davos

John Metcalf, co-founder and CEO of Upgraded, shared his expertise at Davos 2023:

This 12 months was my fifth time to go to Davos through the WEF annual assembly. I began going often in 2014 once I turned a World Shaper. (I’m now an alumnus). On my first journey, I made pals with individuals in different WEF communities like Younger World Leaders and Know-how Pioneers. Now once I go, I see outdated pals and attend occasions — together with the Swedish Lunch. 

My three most vital takeaways from Davos are:

1. WEF occasions and communities practice you to assume massive. The query just isn’t, ‘How do I develop gross sales from $10M to $20M?’ The query is, ‘How do I enhance the lives of these in my neighborhood?’ Or, ‘Which of the UN SDGs objectives and targets is my firm working in direction of?’

2. WEF occasions and communities are remedy for Impostor Syndrome. Having the prospect to satisfy leaders on the highest ranges of enterprise, authorities and impression helps me to do not forget that they don’t seem to be some type of superhumans. Folks you respect can even slip within the snow, generally lose their practice of thought, and luxuriate in singing karaoke. 

3. WEF-size objectives + Entrepreneurship is the proper match, however we have to carry the two collectively. Within the WEF, entrepreneurship is talked about, nevertheless it’s not on the forefront. On the similar time, my entrepreneur pals form of take into account how they’re Bettering the state of the world, nevertheless it’s usually not on the forefront. There’s a chance right here.

EO and WEF

EO’s collaborative settlement with WEF, the College of Cambridge, and the Nationwide College of Singapore, established in 2021, explores SMEs’ positioning and future readiness across the United Nations Sustainable Improvement Objectives (SDGs). The collaboration produced a White Paper, Future Readiness of SMEs: Mobilizing the SME Sector to Drive Widespread Sustainability and Prosperity.

EO is happy to proceed its collaboration to offer worth to its members, improve EO’s visibility globally, elevate the group’s model as a worldwide thought chief, and entice new potential members.

For extra insights and inspiration from at present’s main entrepreneurs, try EO on Inc. and extra articles from the EO weblog.