INSEAD Essentials - Interview Polman / Liduena
I recently interviewed the CEO of Unilever, Paul Polman, for the INSEAD Essentials 2013 conference held in Paris, organized by the INSEAD Alumni Association.
The theme of our conference was "How to make the world a better place - How to be radical optimists in the worst turbulent times".
In this context, Paul shared with me his views on who the CEO of the 21st century should be, and what leadership attributes he/she should have to succeed in a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous).
The CEO of the 21st century needs to have 4 major skills :
i- System thinking : It is the ability to grasp the complexity of the issues of a VUCA world, and to boil that down to simplicity that can get translated into business models.
ii- Strong purpose : There are huge challenges that must be addressed by corporations, such as food security, poverty or climate change... and there are many skeptists around. Top leaders must be driven by strong purpose and convictions to fight skepticism and to overcome global challenges.
iii- Partnership building : The corporate world cannot solve the world issues alone. The top business leaders must build bridges and work together with NGO's and governments to invent and to implement the right solutions.
iv- Long term focus : The CEO must avoid the trap of short term focus (as often induced by quarterly reporting for financial markets), in order to think and to act with the longer run in mind.
Paul made the very interesting observation that the above skill set is more naturally attributed to the female population... and yet, most of current CEO's are still male. This is a real talent challenge that companies will need to address for the years to come. Let's think about that !
... to be continued.
INSEAD Essentials - Interview Polman / Liduena
