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| INSEAD ESSENTIALS & GLOBAL DAY 2013 - WATCH THE VIDEO HERE |
3 months ago INSEAD Alumni Association France held a superb conference in Paris, at the beautiful College des Bernardins, on my favourite theme : How to make the world a better place.
The topic attracted a large audience of business people (over 500) and our tag-line drew their attention because of its unusual nature, especially in pessimistic France : How to be radical optimists in the worst turbulent times.
Paris was indeed a challenging location for this event, as David Jones, CEO of Havas, pointed out in his fantastic closing speech: "In Paris nobody believes that tomorrow can be better than today, whilst in New-York nobody believes that tomorrow can be worst than today"... David wrote a remarkable book on leadership which I recommend: Who cares wins. In this book he insists on the way social media contribute to make the world better, by inciting companies to do well by doing good. Doing good is not anymore a management fashion or a competitive advantage: It has become a vital component of corporate DNA.
All speakers on stage were top leaders of businesses, non profit organizations, churches... speaking wholeheartedly about their passion for growth and social responsibility. Their radical optimism was clear and infectious, energizing the audience and proving that optimist leaders can really change the world, and make their organization successful !
Even bankers :-) were speaking, demonstrating that optimism and authentic leadership can transform their industry which deeply suffered in the past years, being held responsible for the traumatic financial crisis. Antonio Horta-Osorio, CEO of Lloyds Banking Group, used a famous quote of Churchill to underline his testimonial: "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
Jacques Seguela, the advertising master and guru, was on stage too and brilliantly summarized the huge need for optimistic leaders to make our world better, in one of his famous slogans : "Merde à la déprime" ... which translates poorly in English a.k.a. "F--- depression"... His last book, Merde à la déprime, covers this topic in great detail.
Have a look at the short video-clip showing all speakers live: Video INSEAD Essentials
Or watch the full 3-hour event on INSEAD Alumni YouTube channel: IAAFchannel
Be inspired and connected !
SAVE THE DATE FOR INSEAD ESSENTIALS 2014 on SEPTEMBER 11...
