Brazil22 professional services firms a strategic partner of WEF Davos
This week, many of the globe’s elite in politics, business and academics are attending the 2020 edition of the infamous World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Alpine town of Davos. Analysis of WEF’s invitation-only list of top partner companies shows that professional services is at the forefront of discussions and agenda-shaping.
This year is the 50th time the annual meeting has been held in the Swiss mountain resort, with some 3,000 leaders from the worlds public and private sector to participate. The key theme for the event is “stakeholders for a cohesive and sustainable world”, with much of the program devoted to reshaping capitalism, with a push to make societies fairer and to rescue the planet from climate disaster.
The event, which will see the likes of US President Donald Trump, Britain's Prince Charles, German chancellor Angela Merkel and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde take the stage, comes at a time of growing global uncertainty and tensions over geopolitical confrontation and climate change.
Strategic Partners
The World Economic Forum is supported by an exclusive list of 100 strategic partners. These strategic partners "represent 100 leading global companies, each providing essential leadership to support WEF’s mission of improving the state of the world. Only the most recognised corporations with demonstrated track records of good governance and alignment with Forum values are invited to join this group,” according to Klaus Schwab, WEF founder and executive chairman.
Notably, one fifth of strategic partners come from the professional services industry. This includes the globe’s largest strategic consulting firms of Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Kearney (formerly A.T. Kearney), Oliver Wyman (as part of Marsh & McLennan’s partnership) and McKinsey & Company.
The Big Four consulting firms are all represented in the form of Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC, while Accenture and human resources consulting firms Mercer (a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan) and Willis Towers Watson can call themselves a strategic partner.
Coming from a technology background are Cognizant, IBM, Hitachi, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro – each of these companies also has a consulting arm focused on digital transformation. Meanwhile, Heidrick & Struggles is a human capital consultancy and executive search firm, while Dentsu, Omnicom and Publicis are among the world’s largest communications and digital marketing consultancies.
