One multinational CEO was heard describing efforts to develop a business strategy for climate change as the equivalent of stumbling around in a dark, unfamiliar hotel suite trying to find the bathroom.

Still, significant pledges were made in the fight to slow the effects of climate change. These included raising carbon taxes globally to force a change in behaviour, and supporting the proposal to plant a trillion trees worldwide to slow the rate of global temperature increases.

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg made a voluble appearance, but it was Prince Charles who challenged delegates in the only language they understand: money. The ageing monarch-in-waiting warned the assembled CEOs and investors that their accumulated wealth would be entirely worthless if they were unable to do anything with it in the future — other than watch it burn.

It’s little wonder Ramaphosa opted to stay home, where there is plenty of work to do if he is to build the credibility to make good on his promises: like delivering growth, for example, and prosecuting those responsible for state capture.

Perhaps he realised that a lavish showing — trying to keep up the pretense that all is well — would have been inappropriate for a cash-constrained economy like SA’s right now. At the same time, it would have been churlish to not attend at all.

So, instead, it was "Austerity Davos". Just three cabinet members attended — finance minister Tito Mboweni, trade & industry minister Ebrahim Patel and international relations & co-operation minister Naledi Pandor. All three, like several business leaders (whose companies pay to attend), tacked Davos onto the UK-Africa Investment Summit in London the weekend before.

Davos, after all, doesn’t create jobs and investment. It is a talk shop. But it’s a talk shop where it’s worth getting noticed if you have a good story to tell and if you can convince delegates that you might just deliver on your promises. It’s a place to show your wares. And it’s a place for meetings and connections that may lead to future opportunities.

But because it functions at the pace of a speed-dating marathon, you have to be memorable for the right reasons.

Certainly, it’s not like delegation leader Mboweni learnt anything new about investor concerns. The power, though, lies in the fact that the concerns were expressed in Davos. Heineken FD Laurence Debroux, keen on African expansion from the brewer’s existing base at Sedibeng, south of Joburg, told Mboweni: "Power outages really hurt us."

There were other similar concerns. "We can’t have stop-and-go policy," said another executive, echoing the universal concern about the lack of policy certainty. Water quality and the safety of expatriate executives in SA were also key issues.

PepsiCo — probably six weeks from finalising its acquisition of Pioneer Foods — already has a significant potato chip business in SA and is worried about whether it will be able to keep its deep fat fryers going.

"We indicated without any spin that the problems will not be solved immediately," Mboweni told SA journalists at the traditional Friday morning debrief on what had been achieved at the meeting.

He also indicated that the sorry state of the country’s fiscal position, and measures to address it, will be spelt out in the February budget, where he will be looking to stave off a Moody’s downgrade to subinvestment grade.

Notably absent from the room during Mboweni’s debrief, however, were potential investors. Perhaps they came last year or the year before, but without measurable improvements in key economic metrics, they concentrated elsewhere this year.

Still, the SA delegation needed to be in Davos — if only so that Mboweni, who has successfully leveraged ratings warnings to convince his less economically minded colleagues in the ANC of the seriousness of SA’s economic crisis, can do the same with the concerns expressed to him at the gathering.

The most common mistake made by those who have never attended the WEF in Davos is to think that it’s an investment conference at which deals are struck. If they are, they are few and far between. What Davos does is make connections.

For those, like presidential investment envoy Jacko Maree, the gathering remains worthwhile, as it enables South Africans to meet the CEOs of multinational suppliers and client companies, rather than just deal with country heads. There is merit to that argument.

The event is also useful for measuring the global mood.

But none of it ultimately matters if the lessons gleaned are not acted on. At least Mboweni promised investors — those who attended sessions where he was involved — that steady (if slow) progress is being made on many fronts.

Davos is far from perfect. It was designed by elites for elites. Those who attend do so because it enables them, in just a few days, to quickly assess for themselves just how the world is faring. And they return home better able to navigate the inevitable complexities that arise in the global economy. In an increasingly fragmented world, it would be easy to dismiss Davos as a pointless talk shop, but it does in many ways set the global agenda.