CURATED READS FOR GEN Z—AND THEIR Z-CURIOUS COLLEAGUES

first up

Welcome back and Happy New Year! This week, we’re talking about Davos 2024.

Welcome to January, a month commonly devoted to intention setting for the year ahead.

For world leaders, this happens at Davos, the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting where government leaders and industry titans gather to discuss the world’s most pressing issues. This year’s summit will be held January 15 to 19. (For a deeper look at the history of the event and what happens there, read our McKinsey Explainer on the topic.)

Where does Gen Z fit in at this headline-making event? If last year’s gathering is any indication, the answer is: everywhere.
 
In 2023, 60 teenagers and other young people met at Davos to identify five themes that mattered to them: AI and inclusion, climate justice, civic empowerment, education and access, and authentic leadership. Meanwhile, global CEOs wondered aloud in several sessions how they might best work with Gen Z job applicants and employees (someone, forward them Mind the Gap!); other business leaders said their Gen Z employees helped push them to adopt more stringent climate change policies. Also at last year’s meeting, McKinsey senior partner and chief marketing officer Tracy Francis and senior partner and chief people officer Katy George noted that Gen Zers take a pragmatic approach to workplace change: they are open to collaboration and compromise, though they still expect the organizations they work for to reflect their own values. 

As for this year’s summit, attendees, including current members and alumni from WEF’s Young Global Leaders program, expect a few major topics—generative AI, for example—to dominate conversation. Tech entrepreneur and investor Fatoumata Bâ said that the subject of gen AI begs the question: “Power or peril? Davos 2024 conversations will reflect the inherent tensions regarding, on one hand, the tremendous opportunities offered by gen AI … and, on the other hand, the critical ethical and regulatory questions it inevitably raises.” (FYI: the 2024 class of Young Global Leaders at Davos will have been born between 1985 and 1995; the youngest among them will be zillennials and members of Gen Z.) 

Said one 2023 Gen Z attendee: “We are not inheriting the world from our predecessors. We are borrowing it from our successors.… What will we have done to make their lives better?” 

VISUALIZE IT

Consumers are recommending airline, cruise, and lodging loyalty programs much less frequently than they were two years ago.

WAIT, DON’T SCROLL

The gap stops here. Gen AI could widen the racial wealth gap for Black people in the US by $43 billion each year—or it could accelerate the pillars of Black economic mobility, if deployed equitably.

Pop quiz. What’s the difference between a chief information officer and a chief technology officer?

GDP in HD. Pop culture and film are critical elements of the global economy and can even influence geopolitics. Just look at James Bond and K-pop.

NOT US; STILL GREAT

Slay less. Gen Alpha is on its way to dethroning Gen Z as monarchs of the digital age, according to a list of predictions about what the year ahead holds. [NYT]

Rest stop. What is rest, really? One author makes the case that exercise can be just as restorative as idleness—and perhaps more. [Atlantic]

CROSSWORD

— Edited by Alexandra Mondalek, editor, New York