All the WEF's a stage

The World Economic Forum conducts Annual Meeting in Davos (Switzerland) by inviting top business leaders, Intellectuals, political leaders to discuss on the most happening issues in the current environment.The business leaders usually try to participate in maximum number of events conducted in the 5 days period, attended by around 1000 Chairmen/CEOs of various companies. Apart from proposing constructive ideas for solving the issues, business leaders use this is as a stage to brand themselves, which in turn would help their company. Some companies have even doubled their turnover after this meeting. One such company is Enocean.

But this year, Michael Dell of Dell computers, went overboard in branding himself. To be precise, instead of branding, he tried to get some business from not another company, but from a country. In a stage shared by the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, Dell asked this question to Mr.Putin. He offered help to Mr.Putin by asking "How can we help to expand IT in Russia", after mentioning that he felt there is room for Russia to capitalize in Intellectual and scientific sector.

And, Putin shot back by replying "we don't need any help. We are not invalids. We do not have limited capacity. People with limited capacities, abilities should be helped...developing countries should be helped". (Watch the video)

The question which could have been a big business for Dell, turned out to be a disaster.

Now, lets look at the Indian business leaders who are now in WEF, Davos:

1. Mukesh Ambani - Reliance
2. Kris Gopalakrishnan - Infosys
3. Ajit Gulabchand - Hindustan Construction Company
4. K.V.Kamath - ICICI
5. Lalit.K.Modi - Modi Enterprises
6. Nandan M. Nilekani - Infosys
7. Azim Premji - Wipro

It should be noted that, Infosys had gained some good branding in 2006, when Nandan Nilekani became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to join 20 global leaders on this World Economic Forum (WEF).

Tags: WEF, World Economic Forum, Michael Dell, Indians at WEF, Vladimir Putin