Although the Annual Meeting ended yesterday, one group carried on through this morning. The GLTs, or Global Leaders for Tomorrow, have part of their private meeting on Wednesday morning. Over the years, this has been occasionally a social morning, but since 1999 the GLTs have been organised in workgroups dedicated to particular tasks.

There are seven groups which were founded last year, but the most interesting aspect of today was the discussion on potential new workgroups. There are two new ideas that I think are worth noting.

First, Pippa Malmgren of UBS suggested that the GLTs form what might be called a mentoring corps. The corps would not mentor younger leaders, as might be expected, but more senior ones — in both business and politics — who, in the modern phrase, still don’t get it. The GLT mentors would be available on a private, informal, off-the-record basis to induct an older generation into some of the mysteries of new thinking and the new economy.

The other new idea, which came from several directions, was the creation of a GLT foundation. A lot of details need to be worked out, but the basic idea is to build a fund “to enable the passions of GLTs in the context of improving the state of the world”. It’s a grand aim, but the extraordinary energy of the GLTs should be channelled to achieve something remarkable.