Professor Klaus Schwab, born in Ravensburg, Germany in 1938, is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), a leading platform for public-private cooperation.
Established in 1971, the WEF under Schwab’s guidance emphasizes multistakeholder collaboration for global prosperity.
His 1971 book argued for serving all stakeholders in business. Schwab and his wife Hilde founded the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in 1998, supporting over 350 social entrepreneurs globally.
Using the Dan David Prize funds, Schwab set up the Forum of Young Global Leaders in 2004 and in 2011, the Global Shapers Community, both nurturing young voices in global decision-making.
Furthermore, he initiated the Network of Global Future Councils for interdisciplinary knowledge.
The WEF has over 700 employees, headquartered in Geneva. An engineer and economist, Schwab holds multiple doctorates, has penned bestsellers on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and boasts numerous honors, including knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.
He enjoys swimming and skiing, is married with two children and two grandchildren.
Let’s check out some of the top quotes by Klaus Schwab.
Best Klaus Schwab Quotes
It was a hallmark of Nelson Mandela’s leadership that being open to change made him appear not weaker, but even stronger. ~ Klaus Schwab.
If an observer can only make sense of the “reality” through different idiosyncratic lenses, this forces us to rethink our notion of objectivity. ~ Klaus Schwab.
The biggest change in the world today is that the young don’t learn from the old, they teach the old about the world today. ~ Klaus Schwab.
Psychologists point out that the pandemic, like most transformative events, has the ability to bring out the best and the worst in us. ~ Klaus Schwab.
The key issue is the shift of the centre of gravity from the West to the East, the rise of China and India. ~ Klaus Schwab.
The more we think about how to harness the technology revolution, the more we will examine ourselves and the underlying social models that these technologies embody and enable, and the more we will have an opportunity to shape the revolution in a manner that improves the state of the world. ~ Klaus Schwab.
The second industrial revolution has yet to be fully experienced by 17% of the world as nearly 1.3 billion people still lack access to electricity.
Shared understanding is particularly critical if we are to shape a collective future that reflects common objectives and values. ~ Klaus Schwab.
Since the first Industrial Revolution, the average real income per person in OECD economies has increased around 2,900%. ~ Klaus Schwab.
The world must become aware of the fantastic transformational power of social entrepreneurship and the Foundation will work as a catalyst in this effort. ~ Klaus Schwab.
The changes are so profound that, from the perspective of human history, there has never been a time of greater promise or potential peril. ~ Klaus Schwab.
Entrepreneurship is the engine fuelling innovation, employment generation and economic growth. Only by creating an environment where entrepreneur- ship can prosper and where entrepreneurs can try new ideas and empower others can we ensure that many of the world’s issues will not go unaddressed. ~ Klaus Schwab.
Famous Klaus Schwab Quotes
In the new world, it is not the big fish which eats the small fish, it’s the fast fish which eats the slow fish. ~ Klaus Schwab.
As all these trends happen, the winners will be those who are able to participate fully in innovation-driven ecosystems by providing new ideas, business models, products and services, rather than those who can offer only low-skilled labour or ordinary capital. ~ Klaus Schwab.
A great leader has brains, vision, soul, values and a heart. ~ Klaus Schwab.
Productivity is the most important determinant of long-term growth and rising living standards so its absence, if maintained throughout the forth industrial revolution, means that we will have less of each. ~ Klaus Schwab.
We do not want to just define issues; we want to help to create solutions. ~ Klaus Schwab.
Top Klaus Schwab Quotes
COVID-19 may compel us to address our inner problems in ways we would not have previously considered. ~ Klaus Schwab.
When devastating things happen, creativity and ingenuity often thrive. ~ Klaus Schwab.
The fact that a unit of wealth is created today with much fewer workers compared to 10 or 15 years ago is possible because digital businesses have marginal costs that tend towards zero. ~ Klaus Schwab.
It may be too soon to tell, but extrapolating from current trends indicates that mobility will play an ever more important role in society and economics in the future than today. ~ Klaus Schwab.
We have a great obligation not only to look after our own interests, but to engage and to make sure that this meeting is at the beginning of a renaissance of trust. ~ Klaus Schwab.
While inequality between countries has reduced considerably since the 1970s due to the rapid development of emerging market nations, inequality within countries is rising. ~ Klaus Schwab.
The best answer to the extremists is to build a better world. ~ Klaus Schwab.
I do not deny my German identity. But I also feel Swiss. Of my eight great-grandparents, seven were born Swiss. I have been living in Switzerland for more than 50 years. ~ Klaus Schwab.
Popular Klaus Schwab Quotes
It is true that in the post-pandemic era, personal health and well-being will become a much greater priority for society, which is why the genie of tech surveillance will not be put back into the bottle. But it is for those who govern and each of us personally to control and harness the benefits of technology without sacrificing our individual and collective values and freedoms. ~ Klaus Schwab.
Imagine North Korea in 2030, when every citizen has to wear a biometric bracelet 24 hours a day. If you listen to a speech by the Great Leader and the bracelet picks up the tell-tale signs of anger, you are done for. ~ Klaus Schwab.
On the societal front, a paradigm shift is underway in how we work and communicate, as well as how we express, inform and entertain ourselves. ~ Klaus Schwab.
The fourth industrial revolution, however, is not only about smart and connected machines and systems. Its scope is much wider. Occurring simultaneously are waves of further breakthroughs in areas ranging from gene sequencing to nanotechnology, from renewables to quantum computing. It is the fusion of these technologies and their interaction across the physical, digital and biological domains that make the fourth industrial revolution fundamentally different from previous revolutions. ~ Klaus Schwab.
Technology is not an exogenous force over which we have no control. We are not constrained by a binary choice between “accept and live with it” and “reject and live without it”. Instead, take dramatic technological change as an invitation to reflect about who we are and how we see the world. ~ Klaus Schwab.
Put in simple terms, in a post-pandemic world beset by unemployment, insufferable inequalities and angst about the environment, the ostentatious display of wealth will no longer be acceptable. ~ Klaus Schwab.
So these were the 31 top Klaus Schwab quotes and sayings.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Subcomandante Marcos quotes and Varg Vikernes quotes.
