What's the mood at Davos as Trump takes office?

CGTN Europe

CGTN Europe interviewed Lisa Donahue, Co-Head of the Americas & Asia at AlixPartners

Transcript

00:00Donald Trump's threat of tariffs on all imported goods is likely to dominate the first day

00:13of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

00:15Thousands of politicians and business leaders from more than 130 countries are arriving

00:19in Davos. Our correspondent Juliet Mann is there. Juliet, what's the mood ahead of Mr

00:27Trump's inauguration?

00:31Jamie, the roll call of heads of state and government and titans of industry who are

00:36going to be addressing delegates here at the World Economic Forum has created a real buzz

00:40of anticipation. But I have to say that the Davos crowd is a little bit distracted today.

00:46It's all about the inauguration. They're on inauguration watch up and down the town. And

00:53there's a real nervousness because you've been talking about those tariffs that Trump

00:57has been promising. 10 to 20 percent on imports from Europe, 60 percent on goods from China.

01:03And all of that has created huge uncertainty around the US's relationships around the world.

01:10And the markets are hoping that once Trump is in power in the White House, that maybe

01:15there'll be some clarity around taxes, around tariffs, and that will clear the way for deal

01:21making to be done. I'm joined now by what's become a Davos regular, Lisa Donoghue, who's

01:27the co-head of Americas and Asia at Alex Partners, the consultancy. Great to see you again.

01:33Nice to see you.

01:34Now you are turnaround guys. So you've been leading large businesses in the complexities

01:39of business transformation. So to what extent has all this uncertainty around what the US

01:45administration is going to do affected all that?

01:48You know, it's an interesting dynamic. We do a disruption index every year to measure

01:53the amount of concern and trepidation of CEOs, global CEOs. And I think that given dealing

02:01with COVID and dealing with uncertainty, supply chain disruptions, war in Ukraine, all of

02:09those challenges globally have made CEO and leaders a bit more resilient, a bit more prepared

02:15for whatever comes their way. And it's refreshing. Now, 60% tariffs will be tough for anyone

02:22to deal with. But I like to think that as the market, we're going to be looking at deals

02:28being made versus decisions that will have longstanding ramifications that no one really

02:35wants.

02:36So Trump has said that there's going to be tariffs all the way. Other parts of the world

02:41could say, OK, let's work with that and just absorb the extra costs, or they could bring

02:45in their own duties regime. What's your take on the world becoming more protectionist?

02:51Well, we're such a globally integrated economy. The supply chains I just mentioned, disruption

02:57from the supply chains happened because the war in Ukraine and the impacts were far standing

03:03around the world. So I think protectionism, in my opinion, is a bad idea. I think that

03:10trying to find common ground and the right approach to what makes sense from a pricing

03:15perspective, from a protection of IP perspective, a protection of one's shores perspective is

03:21inevitable. But I'd like to think that we are going to be able to come up with something

03:26a bit more collaborative. Look, it's the spirit of what we're working on right now here in

03:31Davos is collaboration.

03:34You haven't mentioned intelligence. You haven't mentioned artificial intelligence. You haven't

03:38mentioned sustainability. Those are top of the agenda, right?

03:41Top of the agenda. And what's driving, if you think about the leaps and bounds in AI

03:47and what that means from the insatiable need for data also means insatiable need for electricity

03:53and power, which goes right toward what are sustainable solutions? How do we get to the

03:58energy transition that we all want while still dealing with the exponential increase in demand

04:04that we're seeing?

04:06We will hear keynote speakers from world leaders and heads of institution. Among them, China's

04:10Vice President Jing-Chui Hsien-Chang. That's going to be interesting. But who else are

04:15you most interested in hearing from?

04:18Well, I always like hearing from the tech guys because right now we're such a tech-driven

04:24business economy. So I'm interested in hearing from the AI guys, the folks from Palantir

04:32because they deal with big data in massive amounts and make it understandable. And I'm

04:38interested in, of course, I'm interested in the Vice President of China. I'm very interested

04:43to hear what he has to say.

04:44Lisa Donoghue, always a pleasure. Thank you so very much.

04:47Thank you. Great to see you.

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