The vigorous debate on Iraq and Syria was remarkable for its consensus, even though the Iraqis and Saudis had their differences. But the outbreak of good feeling was because — partly — the panel did not include any Shiites from Iraq, nor any Iranians, nor anyone from Bashar Al Assad’s regime in Damascus.

When one of the audience asked why these key constituents had been ignored, Prince Turki Al Faisal of Saudi Arabia (former head of Saudi Intelligence) was delighted to leap into the breach and make his favourite point: “The Iranians were invited and they refused to come. And this is the problem — they need to engage with the region.

“Just after Rouhani came to power we invited him to visit Riyadh and he agreed on condition that he meets the King. That was not possible at the time, and even though there are many other senior officials he could have met, Rouhani refused to come and he has still not visited us.

“How can we work with a country that refuses to talk to us, and has a general of its Quds Force who was boasting that Iran has four armies in four Arab states? How can we work with a government that is working to to destabilise so many Arab nations?”

Corporate purpose

Just in case global politics seemed to be dominating Davos, the Said Business School of Oxford University and the accountancy firm EY launched a new survey reminding us that we do not just work for our salaries and employer’s profits. The business leaders assembled to support this launch included Sir Richard Branson of Virgin, Antony Jenkins of Barclays, Paul Polman of Unilever, and Mark Weinberger of EY.

All organisations need a mission that is spelt out and clear to all, which does not happen in many companies. The report included research that showed that 84 per cent of companies believe their transformation efforts will be more successful if integrated with purpose, but only 37 per cent say their business model and operations are well-aligned with their purpose.

Cheryl Grise of EY said, “Purpose has an important role as a strategic, transformational element in business. Purpose-led transformation enhances organisational agility and does so in a way that increases innovation and drives sustainable growth for businesses.”

Andrew White of the Said Business School commented that many CEOs agree that defining and implementing “purpose” is becoming increasingly important to their companies. If companies acknowledge a broader set of stakeholders to whom they are accountable, it has a deep impact on innovation and growth.”

Micro antennae

While recovering from all the action, I slumped down beside a man with a mission. Alfred Berkeley retired from running Nasdaq a few years ago and has developed other interests.

He is now working with a company called Gentag which has a joint venture with Google to develop how to use a third antennae in our mobile phones. Apparently they already have two antennae, one with a large range of 15 kilometres from which our mobile phones work and the second has a range of a few meters from which things like Bluetooth can operate.

The future third antennae will only have a range of up to 5 centimetres, to allow very close communication. One immediate purpose for this is to make payments more secure as no one can electronically eavesdrop at such a close range. But this near-field sensor can also be used to monitor one’s own body as required.

As Berkeley explained, your mobile can be used to communicate with implanted sensors or patches stuck to the body containing small chips. Different patches could monitor different things like body temperature, checking sugar levels for diabetics, monitoring obesity levels, keeping an eye on cardiac state, making sure a patient has taken the right drug delivery, and even whether the body has had enough UV from sunbathing.

Part of the point is that this information would be available through an app on the phone at the consumer level, making it easier to take action if needed, without costly and time demanding visits to the doctor.

As William Cowper wrote a few centuries ago: ‘Variety’s the very spice of life, that gives it all it’s flavour’.

Onwards and upwards!