Major European economic forums need to reclaim their role as platforms for bold, forward-thinking ideas. If they don’t, they risk settling into a kind of soft consensus—well-meaning, yes, but ultimately ineffective at driving significant change across the continent.
In Good Company
For business leaders, these major events are more than just photo ops—they’re essential to their advocacy strategies. Forums offer a chance to speak up and be heard by policymakers, investors, and key stakeholders. It’s a democratic platform to demonstrate how economic leadership impacts society, driving transformational change and global progress. Beyond that, it’s an arena with potential jousting serving pro-business commitments, and delivering a positive PR spin on capitalism. More than anything, they reflect the current mood of the business world. They create a kind of microclimate—an elite bubble where executives can share their frustrations behind the scenes and occasionally even make real decisions. It’s a space for catharsis. However, within today’s world the question is: Are these forums always a true external executives’ platform to address key corporate messages _ or is it more a place for the elite to make decisions behind closed doors?
No Controversy, Please
European leaders, French in particular, have long clung to a tradition of discretion and neutrality. They’re cautious. Even in a world shaped by Trump-style shock politics, the French don’t want to ruffle any feathers. Don’t expect soundbites or headline-grabbing quotes. Today’s spectators, craving bold narratives and radical action, will likely be disappointed. This reserve isn’t only about a gloomy calm chaos context. It’s also an irritation against the pressure to follow every new trend of communication. Think about LinkedIn culture!
In a world of over communication, the decisive communication happens behind the scenes, away from prying eyes. “Most of the dealmaking happens in private suites and meeting rooms tucked away from journalists”, wrote the WSJ on The World Economic Forum in May, just after the recent unravelling of its king, Klaus Schwab. Leaders show only what they want us to see. In France and Europe: it is a soft consensus. In other regions, these are the deals.
The most essential economic forums today are those that enhance a company’s strategic ability to operate globally. A place where strategic alliances are made and decisions are taken to put policies into action. In this regard, forums like the Qatar Economic Forum are increasingly watched by large companies today, as they serve as a platform for corporate diplomacy.
The Forum Agenda
So, what’s actually being discussed at events like the “Rencontres Économiques d’Aix”? The agenda is heavy: structural shifts like AI, demographic divergences, geopolitical tensions, trade wars, ideological battles, and climate anxiety. Behind the scenes, there may be whispered conversations about the growing sense of « Mean World Syndrome,”—a deep-seated anxiety about a world that feels increasingly broken and more dangerous than it is. For young people, it’s essential to move past this cognitive bias of a dangerous world and « embrace the shock of reality”.
Faced with all this, French leaders today resemble Gulliver, bound by countless threads and struggling to move.
This is largely because many European business leaders are still waiting—either for clearer guidance and changes in position from the European Commission (as was recently the case with the CSRD), or for a genuine political agenda that addresses both the public deficit and the major transitions of the 21st century. This sense of expectation highlights how corporate strategies are increasingly shaped by external forces.
There was a time—between 2020 and 2024—when businesses were primarily focused on external pressures like climate change. Today, that focus has shifted. The dominant concerns now stem from heightened economic volatility, much of it triggered by renewed tariff policies by the US. Yet even as attention returns to core business issues (growth and development, as a North Star), the complexity has only grown.
According to the economist Dambisa Moyo, leaders must pay closer attention to capital flows, demographic changes, and political ideologies in their business strategies. Geostrategic challenges—around steel, aluminum, and the deployment of artificial intelligence— weigh heavily on corporate decision-making. Exogenous phenomena are the focus of the forum, but in the corridors, endogenous issues are discussed.
Other pressing issues? Yes, concerning the endogenous effects within organizations. This is probably an example of a topic discussed away from journalists. A clear decline in employee engagement is evident— people are working because they have to— not because they feel a sense of pride. Emmanuel Duez, a French entrepreneur, named this decline the great disillusion. She asks the question: Are our dreams of emancipation through work over? In addition, according to a recent Cegos international survey, some key functions, such as managers, are less popular—especially in France. This refers to the phenomenon of refusal as “conscious unbossing”. A critical issue and cost for the future of work because as said by a Wharton alumnus during a speech for the Class of 2025: « The one thing that we all have complete control over is how hard we work, and nothing feels better than a hard-earned win, especially in challenging times ».
This shift is a direct result of the ever-changing world we now live in. It calls for a new corporate communication, which has not been crafted yet. A strengthened forecast communication strategy that people can trust in for the future of capitalism. How to deliver a decisive communication in a « new normal context » driven by uncertainty, fragmentation and AI experimentation ; this is a great conversation for leaders in the corridors of the “Rencontres Économiques d’Aix” ?
Either way, the underlying mood is clear: tension is running high. Globally, we have gloomy CEOs in the western world. As Axios media wrote: Economic sentiment among America’s top CEOs plunged to the lowest level since 2020, according to a new survey by the Business Roundtable.
As ‘calm chaos’ rises, both internally within organizations and externally on the geopolitical stage, the need for clear communication has never been greater. An event like “Rencontres d’Aix” could do this job. But, everything unfolds behind the scenes (if that!), without decisive communication announcements. The reasons why: 1/ The places where transactions and corporate diplomacy happens are no more in the old continent. A forum to attract foreign elites is urgently called for. This means a forum focused on renewed corporate diplomacy to prop up the competitiveness of European multinationals. 2/ Leader’s communication strategies have not yet been fully crafted for social expectation in this new paradigm. A renewed social license to operate, refocused on trusted business capitalism communication is called for too.
Camille Fumard is a special advisor on strategic affairs to C-suite executives at European boutique communications agency JIN and the author of a book on leadership in the XXIst century.
