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What issues are at the top of your agenda for this year's Annual Meeting,
especially in your capacity as Co-Chair?
The overall theme for the meeting is "Shared Norms for New Reality"
and one thing that I believe must be normative is collaboration.
We face huge global challenges and I'm particularly focused on issues like food
production, sustainable energy for the growing world population.
These challenges can only be solved by working together across sectors,
geographies, and institutions. I had the privilege of co-chairing the
WEF India Summit in New Delhi this past November.
I was encouraged because many participants at the Indian Summit seemed to focus on
collaborative problem solving.
So at the top of my agenda for the Annual Meeting in Davos will be to encourage
everyone to join in the dialogue on the issues with others who are prepared to
take action.
We all make connections in Davos. The right people will be together.
There are big issues facing us and I hope we all look for opportunities to follow up
by focusing on real problems together in a concrete way.
As demand for energy grows apace with an expanding population, what is the key to
fuelling development?
Sometime in 2011 the world population will hit seven billion people, on its way to
nine billion by mid-century.
As demand for energy grows with an expanding population, one of the most
important responses will be reducing dependence on fossil fuel by developing
and introducing a broad range of conservation and alternative energy
technologies. Now some estimates suggest that as many as
three billion people live in energy poverty and that's where they lack access
to sustainable and affordable modern energy and that's going to have to change.
This past November at the World Economic Forum India Summit in New Delhi one of the
sessions examined how India could develop entrepreneurial opportunities for
subsistence farmers so they can go from farming as survival to farming as
a sustainable profession.
Now limited opportunities are driving farmers and entrepreneurs out of rural
areas. Part of the problem is that many world
populations are off the grid.
Power for light, well pumps, refrigeration, and other basic needs
is unavailable or intermittent.
Now we know photovoltaics and wind are possible solutions but they will have to
be developed in a way that addresses India's local needs and economic
realities.
The same scenario will play out in countries like Africa and in other
developing economies.
There won't be a one-size-fits-all solution.
It's going to take collaboration and inclusive innovation.
So as a CEO of a science company I welcome the challenge and the opportunity
that comes with it but as one more example of how business, government,
NGOs, universities, and consumers are going to have to work together to succeed.
How can organizations develop resilience in a world of constant,
accelerating change?
For business, resilience in a world of constant change comes from staying close
to your customers, benchmarking against your competition, and focusing on what you
can control, understanding how your markets are changing, and what that means
for your products and your offerings.
Now business organizations also have to identify what behaviors are going to
facilitate rapid and accurate responses to changing conditions.
And at DuPont we're emphasizing for speed, flexibility, accountability,
and transparency.
Now these behaviors are central to keeping our 208-year-old science company on the
leading edge of science of solutions that are most important to our customers in
both existing markets and in new markets.
Now by pursuing profitable growth in sustainable ways, we're determined to
deliver the innovation necessary to address some of the world's biggest problems.
In what ways are you engaged in the World Economic Forum and how do you think it
works to fulfill the mission to improve the state of the world?
The best forums facilitate productive dialogue across countries, across sectors,
and across institutions.
The World Economic Forum has emerged as one of them and at DuPont, we want to be
in dialogue with our customers, governments, industry groups,
and academia.
Dialogue helps us understand issues. It helps us gain insights into the
problems. But for solutions to emerge, dialogue has
to lead to action. The WEF offers the opportunity not only
to share the info and built the relationships for the collaboration that
are so fundamental to business success but also to help in that problem solving in
the 21st century.