eBusiness Weekly
Chris Chenga
The World Economic Forum, an annual event hosted in the Swiss Alps at a town called Davos, is strictly by invitation only. Attendance includes CEOs and representatives from the world’s biggest corporations, money managers of the world’s largest funds, thought leaders of the world’s most influential institutions, and a select few Heads of States.
There is a perhaps a figurative representation in hosting this event at Davos. At 1,560 metres above sea level, Davos is the highest town in Europe, a befitting location for an event that involves the highest elite who have a bird’s eye view of the entire global socio-economic landscape.
According to CNN’s Paul Armstrong, the cost of a ticket for a single business delegate is approximately $20 000 per head. Depending on a delegate’s means of travel, a delegate flying in from Johannesburg to Zurich will pay around $4 900, excluding costs for the direct trip from the Swiss capital to Davos itself.
Accommodation at the lofty event is not cheap, which is to be expected of a prestigious resort chosen by the top 1 percent and its coterie. Indeed forums and seminars involving some of the world’s leading financial and governing minds are not so rare these days, but what differentiates the WEF is that dialogue is conducted strictly on an underlying narrative of business; bottom line financial and economic interests! As the event has been pressured by more media coverage over the years, dialogue increasingly empathises with altruistic topics such as peace, welfare, and social harmony; but all are revert back to their relevance to how to keep money safe and growing its best possible returns. That is Davos, at its truest.
Albeit expensive and extravagant, the World Economic Forum may very well be the grandeur platform once yearned for and abused by the gluttony of our previous administration, much to the depletion of our fiscal resources. But, it is important that Zimbabwe have representation at Davos.
Our presence should be perceived as a national investment. As attendance at Davos is strictly by invite only, it is commendable that Zimbabwe’s head of state is on this year’s esteemed list. It means rich pockets are willing to listen to our proposition; they’re at the very least curious. So the return on our investment to Davos depends on the rhetoric to be shared by President Mnangagwa. An incumbent who’s taken Zimbabwe’s investment road show just weeks after inauguration, President Mnangagwa obviously understands what this opportunity means.
However, strategy amongst the entire travelling delegates and retinue must be well planned ahead of the event.
Firstly, Zimbabwe’s presentation must be intentional and strategic. This means we must be aware of what we are going after. Like a business pitch, we must know the audience that is to be engaged and have a precise strategy for articulating the matters of interest to that audience.
The Davos crowd wants to hear that money can be safe, and that it can be on a stable growth trajectory for the foreseeable future. Of the many propositions that the world’s elite come across daily, it is the guarantees not opportunities that catch attention.
Real investors are not looking for opportunities, they are looking for guarantees that money will be safe and it will grow for a while!
Thus, what we should expect to hear from President Mnangagwa are Zimbabwe’s guarantees, not so much the opportunities. Indeed His Excellency retains a reputation of being economic in his speech.
That works in his favour. He must expound on the guarantees with a brevity and directness we have grown accustomed to get from him. Also, legacy issues work either as an advantage or disadvantage depending on how one approaches them.
What distanced Zimbabwe from big money in the previous administration, amongst other things, was the lack of convincing guarantees! Indeed we versed the opportunities — human capital, natural resources, sound infrastructure — these have actually always been very well known by investors. It is an investor’s occupation to be informed. We just lacked clear guarantees for actionable investment — property rights, policy consistency, seeing through government obligations or performance. President Mnangagwa must focus on the guarantees narrative of investment.
Secondly, Zimbabwe must cluster its message based on direct involvement and engagement. For instance, which sectors are we pitching? Indeed that is not a Presidential matter of specifics, thus it is advisable that amongst his traveling retinue, His Excellency must be accompanied by industrial or technically erudite professionals.
Other Heads of State travel with technical experts and representatives from specific sectors of business; typically of sectors that are emphasized by the investment push of the time.
Zimbabwe has been susceptible to the vague discourse of FDI, yet we are not economically fitting to all kinds of investment. We must cluster our pitch based on a targeted and specifically broken down investment catalogue. We are also frequently guilty of leaving investors to lead the conversation.
Instead our sector experts and industrialists must advise investors on the levels of finance, technology, operation specifics that we are seeking to make their money grow.
The World Economic Forum is a three day event. While presentations are visible on the grand stage of panelists, deals are made in conference hallways, leisure facilities at the resort, or spot exchanges within vicinity. This is why the entire delegation must be clustered by subject matter and ready to pounce at these diverse opportunities.
The WEF is our most important business pitch in decades, may tea Zimbabwe take our letter and come back with good word. All the best.
