A BRIEF WORD OF INTRODUCTION

My strongest desire is to advance the common good and to make the world a better place, every day, everywhere, by :


Advising and influencing CEO's and business leaders in my job as a consultant at KPMG ; Leading people into their most inspiring journey ever ; Teaching and helping younger generations - those who will shape the world of tomorrow ; Counseling and supporting selected political and religious leaders ; Organizing thought-provoking inspirational events like the Essentials ; Connecting people and ideas all the time ; Trying to learn and to write on a regular basis ; Transforming "think tanks" into "action tanks" ; Being a radical optimist ; Most importantly, making my wife Cécile and our 4 children as happy as possible ; Serving God and people ; Investing wisely the 86.400 seconds we get every day to make our world a better place ... And keeping up smiling, no matter what !


Sunday, September 28, 2014

BUSINESS IS A FORCE FOR GOOD : 6 LEADERS' ATTRIBUTES

May the Business Force for Good be with You

I am back on line!

A few weeks ago I opened the third edition of INSEAD Essentials in Paris with the unusual claim that the role of business is to make the world a better place, and to be a force for good.

Many people out there are saying:
- Business is about making profits, and financial markets don't care about long term...
- Business leaders cannot be truly seeking to make the world better as they must make profits...

Well, I dare to say that the quest of "value" is now over, as the world has lost confidence in the financial and corporate world.

It is now the time of the quest of "values".

I mean "values" in their broadest sense: respect ; sustainability ; trust ; long-term focus ; ethics ; corporate responsibility ; integrity ; employees first ... The sort of values that Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, explained at INSEAD Essentials last year, describing how values drive his vision and strategy for Unilever (50 billion euros sales ; 200.000 employees), through the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

The big question then is HOW the business leaders must think and act consistently, to address the permanent dilemma between making profits and making the world better.

I have listed 6 attributes of top leaders who are authentically seeking to drive the business as a force for good:

1. Adaptability:  We need to understand the context and the ecosystem which we live in.
2. Creativity:  We need to be creative to invent new ways of doing business.
3. Humility:  We need to be humble to face the huge challenges of the 21st century.
4. Empathy:  We need to show genuine interest in others, and to understand them.
5. Charity:  We need to develop a real and authentic love for mankind and society.
6. Benignity:  We need to start seeing the world with benevolence and positive attitude.

Such leaders are authentic, inspired and connected !

See the full speech online:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B74WgOngp7hIU2RtQ05nbjI5M2M/edit?usp=sharing




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