The 2025 World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, held under the theme “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age,” brought together approximately 3,000 attendees from over 130 countries. Among the participants were more than 50 heads of state and government, alongside hundreds of top governmental leaders, private sector voices, and civil society experts. 

As the world faces pressing challenges — ranging from geopolitical tensions and climate change to a global skilling crisis –the meeting in Davos provided a vital platform to foster dialogue and catalyze lasting solutions to shared problems. It also highlighted the importance of corporate responsibility, with social innovation taking center stage as an essential driver of progress. 

Social Innovation Takes Center Stage 

Social innovation is emerging as a foundation for addressing global inequalities and driving systemic change. This year, discussions around social innovation took on greater prominence, with Catalyst Now hosting the first-ever dedicated house for the topic. This space became a hub for thought leaders, practitioners, and policymakers to exchange ideas and spark action.

Social innovation and collaboration go hand in hand, and the synergy between global initiatives and localized action is pivotal in creating meaningful impact. As a key partner, SAP supports Catalyst Now and its Africa Forward initiative, which empowers social enterprises through digital skills training, pro-bono consulting, and policy advocacy. With more than 1,000 members across 28 African countries, Africa Forward continues to foster job creation, sustainable funding, and advocacy efforts. 

The Annual Meeting also served as a bridge between African social entrepreneurs and decision-makers, including South Africa’s Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation Professor Blade Nzimande, opening pathways for new partnerships and support.

The panel featured two 2025 Schwab Foundation Awardees: Christina Mawuse Gyisun, co-founder of Sommalife, who shared her work empowering women shea nut farmers in West Africa, and Muzalema Mwanza, founder of Safe Motherhood Alliance, who highlighted her mission to ensure safe childbirth for millions of women in sub-Saharan Africa. This dialogue underscored the critical role of social entrepreneurship and what role Africa Froward can play in driving sustainable development across the continent. This is essential, as over 60 percent of Africa’s population is under 25 years old and projected to account for 42 percent of the global youth demographic by 2030.

While tech investment remains concentrated in Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa, the continent’s potential in emerging green and digital economies is immense.   

Global Partnerships to Scale Innovation 

Addressing challenges at scale requires collaboration across sectors and geographies. The Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship, the largest coalition of its kind, exemplifies this collective effort. Hosted by the Schwab Foundation in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, the alliance brings together more than 110 organizations, including corporations, investors, philanthropists, and governments, to amplify the impact of social innovation. 

During the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024, the Global Alliance launched the Rise Ahead Pledge. Twenty-five companies have signed the pledge since and committed themselves to increasing investments in social innovation. In 2025, they are reporting on their spending for the first time mobilized $277 million to drive meaningful change. These resources were channeled into key areas: 

• $95 million to support social enterprises through social procurement
• $86 million in non-financial resources like pro-bono services and technology access
• $47 million to provide direct financial support to social innovators
• $29 million for internal innovation, focusing on developing impact-driven products
• $21 million to strengthen the social innovation ecosystem

We are an active partner in these efforts, demonstrating a commitment to creating sustainable pathways for social enterprises to thrive. 

Supporting Research to Shape the Future 

Research and data are critical to driving informed decisions and shaping the social innovation agenda. Several pivotal publications were launched during the meeting to provide actionable insights: 

• Unlocking the Social Economy: Towards Equity in the Green and Digital Transitions: This report highlights the pivotal role of the social economy, including social enterprises and cooperatives, in advancing equity during transitions. Supporting 200 million jobs and generating over $2 trillion in global turnover, the social economy drives inclusive innovation by enhancing affordability, accessibility, job creation, and empowerment for marginalized communities. 
• State of Social Procurement 2025: This report leverages the expertise of numerous organizations to uncover new insights, present fresh data, and highlight diverse country profiles on social procurement.
• Beyond Compliance: Embedding Impact through Innovative Finance: The report reveals how this emerging practice is already driving $185 billion by tying financial incentives to measurable social outcomes. It provides businesses with a powerful avenue to tackle societal challenges while staying competitive. 

A New Model for Procurement 

Procurement is increasingly recognized as a lever for social equity and sustainability. To accelerate this shift, SAP Executive Board Member Thomas Saueressig and Deloitte Global Chair Anna Marks announced the launch of the Social Procurement Innovation Accelerator, a joint initiative designed to reshape procurement practices and amplify social impact. 

This program combines cutting-edge supply chain technology with deep expertise in sustainability and transformation to provide organizations with a practical road map for impactful procurement strategies. It focuses on inclusive sourcing, ethical labor practices, and robust social impact measurement, enabling businesses to align procurement with broader equity and sustainability goals. 

By transforming procurement into a driver of systemic change, organizations can deliver lasting value for people, communities, and the planet. 

Empowering Tomorrow’s Changemakers  

It is essential to maintain this momentum now and into the future by empowering young social innovators, fostering connections, and encouraging intergenerational understanding. This is particularly important because major decisions made at conferences often concern youth, yet they rarely have a seat at the decision-making table.  

To address this, we supported the youth delegations of We Are Family Foundation, ChangemakerXchange, and the WEF Global Shapers, supporting them to participate in hundreds of meaningful interactions such as panel discussions, 1:1 meetings or roundtables.

Gina Vargiu-Breuer, chief people officer, labor director, and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, hosted a roundtable on empowering young changemakers. The session brought together corporate leaders, young social entrepreneurs, and partners like UNICEF Generation Unlimited and Junior Achievement to engage directly with youth. It focused on the unique needs of the next generation, identifying key areas for collaboration and showcasing the transformative power of youth-led solutions to tackle global challenges. 

Looking Ahead 

The 2025 World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting demonstrated the transformative potential of collaboration in accelerating social innovation. By bringing together diverse voices and perspectives, it reinforced the importance of partnerships in addressing the world’s most pressing challenges. 

For the SAP Corporate Social Responsibility team, it also served as a valuable opportunity to strengthen relationships within its ecosystem, fostering new collaborations that will help drive long-term impact. As global challenges persist, platforms like Davos provide the momentum needed to create a more equitable, sustainable future for all.

Alexandra van der Ploeg is head of Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP.

Until recently, predicting outcomes in sports was usually based on historical data compiled from player and team statistics. This approach, however, can’t guarantee outcomes; in fact, it often leads to dashed expectations and disappointing results.

Perhaps the most famous example of this predicament was the 2014 FIFA World Cup semi-final where Germany defeated Brazil 7-1. Traditional metrics favored Brazil, leaving the South American team stunned by their devastating loss and highlighting the inefficacy of existing statistical models in accurately representing team performance.

The Soccer Statistic You’ve Never Heard

Stefan Reinartz, a former midfield Bundesliga player and UEFA Champions League competitor, cited that example on a recent panel discussion hosted by Soccerex Miami. After experiencing his own “Aha!” moment, Reinartz became the founder of IMPECT, a German analytics company that revolutionized the role of statistics in the world of soccer.

“Common soccer statistics like ball possession, winning tackles, running distance, and so on actually have no correlation to the end result,” Reinartz said. “I was quite shocked when I realized they really can’t tell you anything about a player’s or a team’s performance.”

He came to that realization when he read about the Moneyball approach, which uses advanced statistical analysis to acquire undervalued players and thus assemble a competitive team despite a limited budget.

“Some sports such as baseball may be more conducive to such a data-driven strategy, while others like soccer are more complex, making it difficult to create the right KPIs,” he explained.

Soccer is a low-scoring game involving 22 players in continuous action, requiring complex strategies and a lot of hard work to get past opponents to score. Apart from the number of goals and passes, individual statistics are almost nonexistent, making it challenging to create universally reliable metrics.

Realizing that soccer statistics did not measure the true value of individual players changed his own assumptions. Together with another midfielder, Jens Hegeler, he founded IMPECT with the goal of developing soccer data that can be used to make valuable assessments of players and teams. They invented “packing” to quantify the value of a pass or dribble.

The basic statistics in soccer, such as goals and assists, primarily reflect strikers and attacking midfielders, the players who do most of the scoring and assisting. Midfielders, who do most of the running and passing to initiate offensive moves, are seldom recognized statistically. What they do best is move the ball past opposition players. That is what packing measures.

The methodology is simple: Players earn a point for any move — a cross, a dribble, a long pass — that causes the ball to move past opposition players. Receivers also get points.

Today, IMPECT is a thriving business collecting and selling packing data to help teams scout for players, analyze their own performance, and learn key facts about opponents.

What’s SAP Got to Do With It?

During the discussion, Achim Ittner, vice president of Sports at SAP, described the company’s journey from its roots in business software to developing specialized sports applications, emphasizing user-centric design and collaboration with renowned coaches and national teams.

“Like IMPECT, we’ve been focused on developing data-driven solutions and relevant tools for sports clubs using direct feedback and a design thinking approach,” Ittner said. He explained that SAP built a unified platform to address fragmented software ecosystems in sports. The platform integrates APIs and data sources to support processes like injury prevention, training recommendations, match preparation, and player well-being.

“Sports analytics embodies the blend of data science and athletic performance, providing a blueprint to guide decisions made by coaches and trainers,” he shared. “The significance of data in today’s sports ecosystem cannot be overstated. It’s necessary for everything from strategizing game plans to refining individual skills.”

SAP’s engagement with IMPECT is just one example of how the compay collaborates with a variety of teams and experts to further shape its sports technology. New technologies — like social media, mobile, and digital capabilities, as well as sensors in player uniforms and equipment — are disrupting the sports industry. SAP is committed to helping sports organizations take advantage of these new innovations to deepen fan engagement, improve team performance, grow revenue faster, and efficiently operate their business and venues.

Besides solutions for scouting and measuring team performance, SAP also has one for customer engagement and marketing. Afterall, the fan experience is just as important as the team’s performance. The SAP Sports One solution provides a 360-degree view of each customer and fan to better target individual preferences and purchasing behaviors by offering personalized experiences over online, mobile, and social channels. Teams can grow their fan base, manage their merchandise, and increase loyalty with personalized rewards.

Delivering the Experience

“A great sports experience is about so much more than winning the game,” said Ittner. “It involves a mix of elements that includes players, spectators, and organizers.”

For the fans, food and beverage, merchandise, a good streaming experience, and clear communications on schedules and navigating the venue are critical. Having the right players for a winning team and providing them with the best care and training before and after the game is the job of team management. And finally, the venue must provide exceptional facilities, infrastructure, safety, and security.

SAP helps bring this all together, creating an intersection of sports, technology, and innovation.