Peter Fisk

“Leaders of business. This is your wake-up call. You’ve been living on borrowed time. Raping the natural world of its resources, and leaving a toxic mess in its place. These weather patterns are not freaks, they are the world you have created. Blinding the man on the street with your superficial innovations and image. What about the sweatshops, the emissions, the packaging, the greed? It doesn’t look good”  

That’s the opening paragraph of my book “People Planet Profit“, arguing that not only is climate change a global emergency, but also the best opportunity for business to drive smarter innovation and profitable growth.

Amidst all the distractions of economic crisis, global tensions, and uncertain futures, its not easy to focus on climate change.

But we all know the challenge. The scale of the emergency. The urgency for action.

• While Earth’s climate has changed throughout its history, the current warming is happening at a rate not seen in the past 10,000 years.
• According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “Since systematic scientific assessments began in the 1970s, the influence of human activity on the warming of the climate system has evolved from theory to established fact.”¹
• Scientific information taken from natural sources (such as ice cores, rocks, and tree rings) and from modern equipment (like satellites and instruments) all show the signs of a changing climate.
• From global temperature rise to melting ice sheets, the evidence of a warming planet abounds.

Reducing carbon emissions is essential to help keep temperature rises within 1.5C. Going above this could cause “climate catastrophe”, according to UN scientists.

Mark Maslin in How To Save Our Planet focuses on facts, arguing that it is facts rather than scare stories that will really change people’s minds, drive focused actions, and save our world.

Here are some of his collated facts:

• In the second half of the 18^thcentury the Industrial Revolution occurred in one place – Britain. Within 50 years it had spread to the whole of Europe, North America and Japan. The Industrial Revolution led to the age of pollution – with waste materials being dumped into rivers, lakes, soil, oceans and the atmosphere.
• In 1950 the global population was 2.5 billion. In 2020 the global population was 7.8 billion. A rise of over 5 billion in 70 years.
• An average American now uses over 10,000 watts per day to power their cars, homes, offices and the rest of their lives, equivalent to running about 160 old-fashioned lightbulbs – compared to just 6 lightbulbs equivalent use by our hunter-gatherer ancestors.
• We have added 2.2 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. 25% of this extra ‘anthropogenic’ carbon dioxide has come from the USA. 22% from the EU. Less than 5% from Africa.
• We have made enough concrete to cover the whole surface of the Earth in a layer 2 mm thick.
• We have created over 170,000 synthetic mineral-like substances, such as all plastics, concrete, steel, ceramics and many artificial drugs. (There are approximately 5,000 ‘natural’ minerals).
• There are 1.4 billion motor vehicles, 2 billion personal computers and more mobile phones than people on Earth.
• We make over 300 million tonnes of plastic per year, equivalent in weight to 1 billion African elephants or every single person on Earth.
• The current weight of all land mammals in the world is made up of 30% humans, 67% livestock and 35% wild animals. 10,000 years ago wild animals made up 99.95% of the weight.
• We are not all equally liable for the mess we find ourselves in. The richest 10% of the world’s population emit 50% of carbon pollution into the atmosphere. The richest 50% of the world’s population emit 90% of carbon pollution into the atmosphere. The poorest 3.9 billion people have contributed just 10% of the carbon pollution in our atmosphere.
• Poor people in developing countries can spend up to 80% of their income on food. Americans spend less than 10% of their income on food.
• We produce enough food to feed 11 billion people. 825 million people do not have access to enough food.
• The fossil fuel industry, political lobbyists, media moguls and individuals have spent the last 30 years sowing doubt about the reality of climate change – where none such doubt exists.
• The world’s 5 largest publicly owned oil and gas companies spend approximately $200 million per year on lobbying to control, delay or block binding climate-motivated policy.
• Currently the fossil fuel industry receives $5.2 trillion in subsidies. The largest subsidizers are China ($1.4 trillion), United States ($649 billion), Russia ($551 billion), European Union ($289 billion) and India ($209 billion).
• Western countries have produced over half the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, while India has produced just 3%.

So what can business do? Be ambitious (and agile) says Mailin –  be open and transparent, set emission reduction targets, focus on energy, apply the circular economy, encourage employee power, link into supply and value chains, change the whole conversation, influence governments, create a new wave of social and environmental entrepreneurs.

And as individuals? Talk about it. And start with ourselves – switch to a more vegetable-based diet, to a renewable energy supplier, make your home energy efficient, use cars less, stop flying, divest your pension from fossil fuels, divest your investments from fossil fuels, refuse/reject excessive consumption, reduce what you use, refuse as much as you can, recycle as much as you can; Use your consumer choice, protest and vote for a better world.

In his new book Speed & Scale, John Doerr, an engineer and venture capitalist brings together a plan based on how to limit further global warming of no more than 1.5°C. His 6 action areas are:

• Electrify transportation: switch from gasoline and diesel engines to fleets of plug-in bikes, cars, trucks and buses. 6Gt
• Decarbonize the grid: replace fossil fuels with solar, wind and other zero-emissions sources. 21 Gt
• Fix food: restore carbon-rich topsoil, adopt better fertilization practices, motivate people to eat more proteins and less beef, and reduce food waste. 7 Gt
• Protect nature: interventions for forests, soil and oceans. 7 Gt
• Clean up industry: all manufacturing, particularly cement and steel, must sharply lower their carbon emissions. 8 Gt
• Remove carbon: remove CO2 and store it for the long term, using natural and engineered solutions. 10 Gt

Doerr focuses on four areas that can accelerate the transition: Policy & politics, Movements, Innovation, and Investment. His plan is geared to the timelines of two other initiatives: E. O. Wilson’s Half-Earth challenge to commit 50% of the planet to nature (50×50) and the Campaign for Nature’s call to protect 30% of the planet by 2030 (30×30).

In Speed & Scale Doerr says what we’re doing is not nearly enough. “We need both the now and the new” he says, “there is a time when panic is the appropriate response, and it is now cheaper to save the earth than to ruin it.”

Big change needs big investment, he argues. Only 9% of the world’s plastic is recycled, while 75% of the world’s aluminium remains in use today – proof of the potential of the circular economy. Deforestation funding outpaces forest protection funding by a ratio of forty to one. Indigenous peoples are only 5% of the population while their land contains 80% of the world’s biodiversity.

Emissions by kilogram of food are highest for beef (beef herd – 59.6), lamb & mutton (24.5), cheese (21.2), beef (dairy herd – 21.1), dark chocolate (18.7), coffee (16.5), shrimps (farmed – 11.8), palm oil (7.6) and pig meat (7.2).

Rice has a score of 4 because the cultivation technique of flooding paddies creates an ideal environment for methane-producing microbes. Controlled, shallow flooding can reduce this by 90% – an important development since rice is a cornerstone food for 3 billion people and provides 20% of calories consumed in the world.

The real challenge, as I see it, is to embrace sustainability as our catalyst for innovation – sustainable innovation will become the most important way in which the world can address these huge challenges at scale – solving them in a way that also creates value for consumers, for citizens – but at the same time, the most significant driver of business growth – value for organisations, too. Impossible Foods, led by Pat Brown is one great example, of creating something better for consumers, and better for the world. Here are some more examples:

• Eco-friendly Biofuel. Through sustainable innovation, companies can invent and offer novel products or services that directly contribute to achieving sustainability. For example, Bio-bean, a British startup, developed an eco-friendly biofuel made from coffee waste to help power London’s double-decker buses. Bio-bean also upcycles spent coffee grounds into eco-friendly products such as coffee logs and coffee pellets—alternatives to carbon-heavy fuels such as coal briquettes and imported wood logs. Bio-bean is using material previously considered waste, contributing to a circular economy while generating approximately $10 million (USD) in annual revenue in 2020.
• Fairly-sourced Smartphones. Sustainable innovation is not only about inventing novel products or services. Firms can also innovate sustainably while offering existing products or services when they change their processes. Process changes can occur in many areas, e.g. design, production, marketing, and even HR. For example, Fairphone, a Dutch social enterprise, offers consumers fairly-sourced smartphones. Unlike bio-bean, which created novel products (ie logs and pellets made out of coffee waste), Fairphone products do not have any new technical features. Instead, Fairphone dramatically changed the smartphone production process to make it more responsible and sustainable. They use recycled and responsibly mined materials and provide their workers with fair wages and good labor conditions. Because approximately 80% of the emissions of a smartphone come from its production, Fairphone designs its phones to last. They have a modular design which makes repairs and upgrades easier, thereby significantly reducing e-waste.
• Smog Vacuum Cleaner. Daan Roosegaarde is the mastermind behind the world’s first smog vacuum cleaner. The Smog Free Tower measures almost 23 feet high (7 meters) and sucks in polluted air, cleaning it through a process of ionization before releasing it again. At its peak performance, the tower cleans 30,000 m3 of air per hour.  Thanks to Roosegaarde’s design, you can even wear rings made from the compressed smog particles collected from the tower. By buying and wearing a Smog Free Ring, you’re contributing to over 10,700 square feet (1000 square meters) of clean air. The project has garnered a lot of attention since its inception, winning multiple awards. Recent tower campaigns have been launched in South Korea, China, the Netherlands, Mexico, and Poland.
• Solar Glass. Solar glass could change the way we create homes and commercial buildings. Researchers at the University of Michigan are developing solar glass, a sustainable engineering project that has generated a lot of buzz in recent years. Just as the name implies, solar glass would be able to capture and store solar energy. According to the research team, 5 to 7 billion square meters of usable window space exists, enough to power a full 40% of US energy needs using solar glass.
• Edible Cutlery. A green alternative to plastic cutlery, Bakey’s edible alternative comes in three different flavors—plain, savory, and sweet. They’re 100% natural and will biodegrade if not consumed.
• Water Capture. Some innovations are the result of using nature as a design mentor (biomimicry), for example, recent advancements in fog catchers or netting systems in arid climates help communities capture water from the morning fog and were modeled on an understanding of how the texture on the Namibian Desert Beetle’s forewings captures moisture so efficiently. The Biomimicry Institute provides learning journals that can help designers create a strong foundation for further learning. They have also created an amazing website called “Ask Nature”.
• Green Buildings. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED® is an international symbol of sustainability excellence and green building leadership. LEED’s proven and holistic approach helps virtually all building types lower carbon emissions, conserve resources, and reduce operating costs by prioritizing sustainable practices. Canada is one of the top territories in the world for LEED certification. Did you know that buildings generate nearly 30% of all greenhouse gases, and 35% of landfill waste, while consuming up to 70% of municipal water?

From whirlpool turbines to edible cutlery, water blobs, and package-free shampoo and toothpaste, here’s are another 22 inventions that could help us cut back on plastic, reduce garbage in the sea, and make the Earth a better place:

10 great new books on sustainability

Since writing my bestselling book People Planet Profit on the opportunities of sustainable innovation, to find new ways to drive social and commercial progress, there has been an abundance of new books emerge.

Here are some more of the best new books exploring the challenges of sustainability, and opportunities for business, to deliver more meaningful, focuses and profitable impact:

The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability – Designing for Abundance

The Upcycle is William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s follow-up to Cradle to Cradle. “Now, drawing on the lessons gained from 10 years of putting the cradle-to-cradle concept into practice with businesses, governments, and ordinary people, William McDonough and Michael Braungart envision the next step in the solution to our ecological crisis: We don’t just reuse resources with greater effectiveness, we actually improve them as we use them. For McDonough and Braungart, the questions of resource scarcity and sustainability are questions of design. They envision beneficial designs of products, buildings, and business practices – and they show us these ideas being put to use around the world as everyday objects like chairs, cars, and factories are being reinvented not just to sustain life on the planet but to grow it.” Amazon

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and The Breakthroughs We Need

“Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet’s slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal.” Amazon

Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take

Paul Polman and Andrew Winston’s great book is my favourite of the year. “The ex-Unilever CEO who increased his shareholders’ returns by 300% while ensuring the company ranked #1 in the world for sustainability for eleven years running has, for the first time, revealed how to do it. Teaming up with Andrew Winston, one of the world’s most authoritative voices on corporate sustainability, Paul Polman shows business leaders how to take on humanity’s greatest and most urgent challenges—climate change and inequality—and build a thriving business as a result.” Amazon

How Bad Are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything

Adidas took the bold step to put a carbon footprint figure on the pair of every pair of its new Futurecraft running shoes. Mike Berners-Lee explore more. “Part green-lifestyle guide, part popular science, How Bad Are Bananas? is the first book to provide the information we need to make carbon-savvy purchases and informed lifestyle choices, and to build carbon considerations into our everyday thinking. It also helps put our decisions into perspective with entries for the big things (the World Cup, volcanic eruptions, and the Iraq war) as well as the small (email, ironing a shirt, a glass of beer). And it covers the range from birth (the carbon footprint of having a child) to death (the carbon impact of cremation). Packed full of surprises-a plastic bag has the smallest footprint of any item listed, while a block of cheese is bad news-the book continuously informs, delights, and engages the reader.” Amazon

The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Business Will Win

“How to create a company that not only sustains, but surpasses-that moves beyond the imperative to be less bad and embrace an ethos to be all good. From the Inspired Protagonist and Chairman of Seventh Generation, the country’s leading brand of household products and a pioneering good company, comes a one-of-a-kind book for leaders, entrepreneurs, and change agents everywhere. The Responsibility Revolution reveals the smartest ways for companies to build a better future-and hold themselves accountable for the results. Thousands of companies have pledged to act responsibly; very few have proven that they know how. This book will guide them. The Responsibility Revolution presents fresh ideas and actionable strategies to commit your company to a genuine socially and environmentally responsible business and culture, one that not only competes but wins on values.” Amazon

Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

Cities from Amsterdam to Berlin all now want to be doughnuts because of this book. “In Doughnut Economics, Kate Raworth sets out seven key ways to fundamentally reframe our understanding of what economics is and does. Along the way, she points out how we can break our addiction to growth; redesign money, finance, and business to be in service to people; and create economies that are regenerative and distributive by design. Named after the now-iconic “doughnut” image that Raworth first drew to depict a sweet spot of human prosperity (an image that appealed to the Occupy Movement, the United Nations, eco-activists, and business leaders alike), Doughnut Economics offers a radically new compass for guiding global development, government policy, and corporate strategy, and sets new standards for what economic success looks like.”  Amazon

Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit

“What is a responsible business? Common wisdom is that it’s one that sacrifices profit for social outcomes. But while it’s crucial for companies to serve society, they also have a duty to generate profit for investors – savers, retirees, and pension funds. Based on the highest-quality evidence and real-life examples spanning industries and countries, Alex Edmans shows that it’s not an either-or choice – companies can create both profit and social value. The most successful companies don’t target profit directly, but are driven by purpose – the desire to serve a societal need and contribute to human betterment. The book explains how to embed purpose into practice so that it’s more than just a mission statement, and discusses the critical role of working collaboratively with a company’s investors, employees, and customers. Rigorous research also uncovers surprising results on how executive pay, shareholder activism, and share buybacks can be used for the common good.”  Amazon

The Truth About Green Business

“Everything you need to know to green your business and grow your profit. The truth about what climate change means for your business. The truth about running lean and green. The truth about future-proofing your business. Simply the best thinking. The truth and nothing but the truth. This book reveals 52 proven green strategies and bite-size, easy-to-use techniques that get results.”  Amazon

Rebuilding Earth: Designing Ecoconscious Habitats for Humans

“It is estimated that the earth’s population will expand to an unprecedented nine billion people over the next century. This explosion in population is predicted to place further stress on our environment, deplete our natural resources, and lead to increases in anxiety and depression due to overcrowding. In this visionary and uplifting book, Teresa Coady offers readers new hope. Rebuilding Earth is her blueprint for designing and building the cities, buildings, and homes of tomorrow, resulting in more conscious, sustainable, and humane living. Coady shows us how we can shift from an outdated Industrial-Age framework to a more humane, Digital-Age framework. This revolutionary approach will enable communities to harness various forms of green energy and reduce the amount of material needed to build infrastructure while contributing to a healthier planet (and society). We can then experience a new sense of purpose, health, and happiness. Meaningful and lasting change, the author tells us, can only come through designing interconnected communities that are vibrant, resilient, and communal. Unlike most predictions of doom and gloom, Coady presents a refreshingly optimistic view of humanity and its future. This book will appeal to those in the construction, design and development finance industries, as well as anyone interested in improving their lives through understanding the connections between the environment and health.”

Business and brands are the best platform for change

Here is my recent TED Talk, I describe some of my most recent ideas and insights for turning the challenge of sustainability into a profitable opportunity for business, and progress for our world:

 

• Book: “People Planet Profit” Free COP27 edition to download now!
• Article: Adidas to Allbirds – sustainable fashion brands embracing the circular economy
• Article: Upcycling. Reinventing fashion to be more sustainable, interesting and unique
• Article: P&G’s Ambition 2030, sustainable innovation as “a force for a good and a force for growth”
• Case study: Agua Bendita. Handmade swimwear from the colourful scraps of Colombia
• Case study: All Birds. The world’s most comfortable shoes
• Case study: Bolt Threads. Synthetic spider silk for a better luxury world
• Case study: Impossible Foods – Can a great tasting burger save the planet?
• Case study: Lemonade. Insurance driven by AI and behavioural economics, for good.
• Case study: Ørsted. The world’s most sustainable business, transformed from black to green. 
• Case study: Positive Luxury. The butterfly mark you can trust
• Case study: Selina. The digital nomads cool place to stay, work and live.
• Case study: Too Good To Go. An end to food waste. 
• Toolkit: 40 Business Tools with Purpose
• Playbook: Business for a Better World by Peter Fisk, at European Business Forum
• Workshops: Better World: Sustainable Futures Program by Peter Fisk, available now

More resources from others

• Sustainability barometer by Mintel
• CXO Sustainability Report by Deloitte
• Sustainability driving growth, by Kantar
• How green can green growth be? by McKinsey
• Driving sustainable growth for brands by Siegel+Gale
• How sustainability is accelerating innovation by WEF
• Analytics: SDG Tracker by Max Roser and team at Our World in Data
• Book: Net Positive by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston
• Book: Sustainability. Good for Business. Executive Playbook by Microsoft/EY
• Book: The 1.5C Business Playbook
• Book: The Better Business Playbook
• Book: The ESG Leaders Playbook
• Book: Biomimicry Resource Handbook
• Book: Green Swans
• Diagnostic:  Net Positive Readiness Test
• Diagnostic: Better Business Assessment Tool
• Presentation: Is the world better because your business is in it?
• Presentation: ESG Value Creation Journey by PwC
• Article: Doughnut Economics by Kate Haworth
• Article: Where ESG Fails by Michael Porter
• Report: The Sustainability Transformation : Look Ahead, Look Inside, Look Around 
• Report: New Green Radicals: Alstom to Toast Ale, Loop to Lush, TerraCycle to Triodos
• Survey: The World’s Most Sustainable Companies 2020: Denmark’s Orsted tops the list
• Survey: The World’s Most Sustainable Companies 2021: France’s Schneider Electric tops the list
• Survey: The World’s Most Sustainable Companies 2022: Denmark’s Vestas tops the list
• 21 Sustainability Innovations Changing the World
• Social Sustainability Everything You need to know
• The 35 Easiest Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
• World Atlas, The World’s Most Sustainable Countries
• Government of Canada Explore our 13 goals (fsds-sfdd.ca)
• What is a Circular Economy and How Does it Work?
• The Triple Bottom Line

The 2015 UN Paris Agreement commits countries to limit the global average temperature rise to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and to aim for 1.5°C. Scientists have said crossing the 1.5°C threshold risks unleashing far more severe climate change effects on people, wildlife and ecosystems.

Forum for the Future, together with the Aditya Birla Group, used a scenario planning approach to imagine alternative scenarios for 2040, and produced a set of materials to help businesses understand what the journey to climate resilience might look like.

The four scenarios can be used as lenses to see into the future, in order to make better decisions today.

The climate challenge

The challenge is clear. How to keep global temperatures within 2 degrees of pre-industrial levels.

A range of physical impacts of climate change are locked in due to our past emissions. And we know that major changes are necessary in our energy and mobility systems, in how we construct and live our lives if we are to stay under this limit. These ‘physical’ and ‘transition’ impacts are only just beginning to be understood by the business community.

More difficult to understand – and therefore factor into strategy making, innovation and investment decisions – are the different pathways we could take to stay under 2°C. What levers could be pulled, by whom and by when? And, importantly, what does this mean businesses need to take action on now in order to be successful in a below 2°C future?

The scenario approach

Scenario planning is a relatively simple process, but depends on effective facilitating to set context, stretch and support the teams working on each scenario, and to provoke a meaningful set of discussions that lead to useful insights, and practical action.

4 scenarios for 2040

The output was 4 scenarios for 2040 to promote discussion, innovation and action by business and society into how most effectively to address the challenge. The report includes:

“Baseline” infographics conveying the physical changes we can expect in 2040 due to climate change, and the ‘transition’ changes that are needed to get on a <2°C trajectory such as the banning of internal combustion engines and the phase out of much of coal.

Four scenarios that represent different pathways our research tells us are viable from the standpoint of 2018 to limit warming to under 2°C.

Scenario 1: “Efficiency First” … a precarious globalised house of cards where constant and often risky technological innovation, motivated by high carbon prices, is just keeping us on track

Scenario 2: “Redefining Progress” … a digitally connected, yet highly localised world where priorities in many countries have shifted from rapid growth to healthier growth

Scenario 3: “New Protectionism” … a splintered world of protectionist blocs, where tackling climate change is a matter of national security

Scenario 4: “Service Transformation” … a world where the mainstreaming of access over ownership has happened quickly, and globally applied, individual carbon budgets are traded and tracked.

Which scenario is the better? What actions should business and society take now, in order to work together towards the preferred scenario?

The UN’s IPCC has itself used scenario planning to envision potential futures, outcomes and most effective actions. You can read more about their 5 scenarios here.

Jeff Johnson was Nike’s first-ever full-time employee. His task back in 1966, having joined Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman in the start-up sportswear business, was to create the company’s first store in Santa Monica. As Knight says in his great book “Shoe Dog” the store became a “holy of holies” for runners.

Johnson loved books as much as he did running, and the shop’s shelves were packed with book he thought runners should read. He added photos of all the best runners, and memorabilia from events, alongside the early running shoes from Nike (actually made by Asics Tiger at the time, and imported from Japan). Johnson also kept card files about each of his customers, including their running history, aspirations and shoe sizes. He sent them Christmas cards and congratulatory  if they won a big race. Johnson became a source of knowledge and inspiration – for injury advice, for training plans, for future events – and the store became a Mecca for runners.

In 2002, a young German Tobi Lütke moved to Ottawa Canada to be with his girlfriend. His great love, however was snowboarding, and having failed to find a job he decided to open a local snowboarding store. Like Johnson, Lutke’s passion was the thrill of the sport and his store quickly became a place where snowboarders could hang out, share stories and experiences. However, with a background in coding, he saw how he could scale this idea in the digital world. Shopify was born as way to allow any small physical store to create an online version. But not just to sell products, to engage consumers in what they do, and love. Shopify has grown rapidly across the world during the pandemic. Replicating the power of physical engagement, digitally.

The pandemic has fundamentally disrupted the way people shop, for ever. Online retail has soared as physical shops and malls have closed. The future-focused retailers, and the brands who used to line their shelves, are now racing to win the battle for buyers, with the most important tool, their customers’ data. While most people look at the online giants like Amazon and Alibaba, online retail has grown into much something much more than transactional megamarts.

Take Glossier for example, Emily Weiss creating a consumer-to-consumer community and using the power of its fans to build a loved beauty brand. Take StockX, the online auction site for fashion, where fashionistas snap up the latest drops, then flip them within in minutes, reselling for a huge premium. Take StitchFix, a subscription based fashion retailer, that sends you a box of clothes each month, send back what you dont want, through which it learns what you really like. Take Pinduoduo, fusing social media and online retail, gamification and entertainment, to immerse people socially in a mall-like experience. Take Jio, the Indian super app, which is converging every sector to transform how Indian’s live. Take Epic, the gaming platform, which is embracing metaverse thinking to become a destination for any brand seeking to engage with GenZ, and branded stores like Gucci Garden.

And take Nike today, where almost 50% of all sales now happen online, direct to consumer, encouraged by brand membership, immersive sporting experiences and a vibrant active community.

The most successful retailers will be those that connect with consumers in new ways by leaning in on their digital, omnichannel, and in-store technology ambitions. But this is not “digital or physical” but a dynamic liquification of experiences, a fusion of human physical experiences enhanced and enabled by smart, intelligent tech.

Alibaba coined the phrase New Retail, as a vision for digital, social, realtime shopping. Livestream shopping on social media is rapidly disrupting traditional e-commerce in China. At the heart of this online craze are the top influencers who sell millions of dollars worth of products every night. Now there is over 500 million active livestream shoppers.

Here’s my recent keynote at the Austrian Retail Forum – exploring the changing world, across geographies and sectors, and understanding what they means for retail. I bring together insights and ideas from companies – including retailers – in every part of the world, to identify the big questions, the enduring trends, the new concepts, and the priorities for business leaders.

Contact me at peterfisk@peterfisk.com for retail keynotes, workshops – and for other sectors and topics too!

“For Tomorrow” celebrates and empowers people to share their creative sustainability solutions. It’s a place to connect with innovators, insights, resources, and inspiration to help build a better world for everyone.

It is a new initiative to accelerate sustainable innovation around the 17 SDGs, led by the United Nations Development Programme and supported by Hyundai. It is driven by a commitment to connecting the local innovators creating solutions for a more sustainable future and advancing these solutions to reach the ambitious goals set out in Agenda 2030.

The initiative is driven by a manifesto 2030, and promoted via an online documentary.

A film about the faces of real change

Narrated by Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley, For Tomorrow — the Documentary is the story of grassroots innovators striving to create a more sustainable future.

From a self-taught engineer who built a solar-powered car to a young woman with disabilities fighting for inclusivity, they are tackling sustainability issues on the ground and empowering their communities. Is the world ready to look elsewhere for solutions to our collective challenges?

Entrepreneurs featured in the film include:

Emmanuel Alie Mansaray (Freetown, Sierra Leone) … Tackling air pollution, 24-year-old self-taught engineer Emmanuel built the Imagination Car, Sierra Leone’s first locally made solar car, entirely from waste. Driven to address other issues in his country, he also built eight legs for amputees, and a solar-powered lamp. He is currently raising money to expand his project.

Walk into the new Amazon Style fashion store in Santa Monica and you are guided by your smartphone through a truly personal, interactive, realtime shopping experience – as good as an online experience, better because it is 3 dimensional, human and sensory too. You’re guided to recommendations, can quickly try on design with your avatar, and one-click buy and ship home.

Sit down at home and dream of an interior by selecting the IKEA Place app, pointing the camera at your room then imagining what could be. Augmented reality, it might be, but a few clicks and you are quickly replacing your sofa with the latest Swedish design chic, adding wallpaper and lighting, cushions and curtains. Click to order wait to arrive.

Immerse yourself in the online gaming environment of Roblex, and you can browse in Gucci Garden, an entirely virtual format of Gucci’s store and museum, where you can buy digital handbags for your avatar, but real ones too (often cheaper), and deliver next day. You could head over to Nikeland for a virtual workout, but actually with physical friends, who you connected with in the gym.

Time for some entertainment, and you could find Justin Bieber‘s next gig is in the metaverse rather than a huge stadium. IN fact Fortnite, became the place for music stars to launch new albums, and put on concerts during the pandemic. And it continued afterwards. But if you want a real event, head to London’s ABBA Voyage concert, where you can dance the night away to four avatars on stage.

Liquifying the CX

Physical and digital is an old idea. This is not a choice, physical or digital. Today, they are the same thing.

“Liquid” experiences are more than “hybrid”, more than “omni”-channel, more than “phygital” (strange word!).

They flow seamlessly in their format between physical, sensory moments and digital, intelligent moments. They are neither one nor the other, but both. They combine the best of being human, with the enabling power of data and technologies.

In reality, this has always been the case. Even the most digital experiences, still require us to engage with it, at least in a Web1 or Web2 world. But we still liked to refer to solutions as either digital or physical. Think of retail, or banking, or entertainment. We have Netflix or a movie theatre, but imagine if both were part of one enhanced experience.

A liquid state, as any student physicist will tell you, is that state in between a solid and a gas. It has properties which are similar to both – it is visible, finite, bordered (like a solid) – but takes the shape of its container, transient in time (like a gas).

A liquid experience for customers is similarly constantly flowing and flexing in its character – sometimes real, human, tactile – sometimes virtual, yet highly intelligent, and automated – and sometimes both.

“Liquidity” challenges CX designers, and their brand owners, to rethink every type of experience, how they can harness the best of all formats, to create more human and enjoyable, yet virtual and convenient, solutions.

The reality is that we are ultimately human, physical beings. And therefore this is where most holistic value can be created. Digital is the ultimate enabler. The creative challenge is to better embed digital power within essentially human experiences.

Imagine how a “liquified” approach to CX design could transform your brand, and consumer’s experience?

Examples of Liquid CX

IKEA Place … using AR to imagine new physical possibilities with a simple app.

Amazon Style … the new physical fashion stores are fully digital.

Alibaba New Retail … a new vision for stores online, and in the high street.

• Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=336YkwayCD4

Nikeland on Roblox … go online to get a physical workout

• Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1yX7awE5P0

Moleskine Smart Writing System … fusing digital and physical notebooks.

• Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mEmh6APKjQ

ABBA Voyage … physical concert, dancing to the digital avatars.

Steve Aoki … creating art at the junction of physical and digital.

It’s not easy to understand corporate financials.

The traditional metrics tend to hide what is really going on – the different sources of revenue, particularly as brands diversify into many types of services to complement their products – and then how profits are actually derived, or not.

Here are some fabulous visually-engaging financial analysis by Bertrand Seguin, a 37 year old French investor, who spent 12 years at Japanese gaming company Bandai Namco explaining finance to his bosses. They utilise what is known as a Sankey diagram to illustrate revenue and cost flows in ways that spark interest and conversation.

In his newsletter, which you can sign up to, he goes further and interprets the latest financial reporting, forthcoming IPOs and much more, to help make sense of the underlying health of organisations.

Apple is a money machine, now more valuable, market cap $2.4 trillion, than the rest of the “FAANGs” (Meta, Alphabet, Amazon, and Netflix) together.

Microsoft‘s reinvention has been impressive in recent years, driven by the cloud. It’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard will continue the revolution.

Alphabet’s dominance of search advertising sustains its model, but needs to look beyond this to new business models as markets evolve.

Amazon generates huge revenues but little profits, but that is the sign of a relentless innovator, able to focus on the future.

Disney had a great pandemic, as its streaming services rapidly caught up with Netflix. It is no in the driving seat of convergent media again.

Shopify, Tobi Lutke’s digital retail business, has come a long way since his first snowboarding shop which was more focused on community than sales.

Meta is a business in a mess, having lost 60-70% of its value in the last 12 months, with rapid decline in Facebook activity and advertising, and  self-indulgent dreams of its founder.

Visa is the most valuable financial services company in the world, more valuable than any bank. Payment systems in general are driving the real innovation in finance.

These are just examples, from the most recent financial reports. Seguin continues to generate more, and also to add much deeper, interesting commentary in his regular reports. Here are a few more of his diagrams:

 

You’ll find much more similar analysis, and interpretation, on his website and in his newsletters.

Over the past one hundred years, the office has been integral to the development of modern society. It has shaped the architecture of our cities, the behaviour of our organisations, and the everyday movements of millions of people.

And then the global Covid-19 pandemic brought our attendance in the office to an abrupt halt and triggered a complete reevaluation of the purpose of the workplace. Is it the end of the office as we know it?

Many companies have only partially returned to their offices. Most are currently exploring hybrid-type models of 2-3 days a week together. Some, like Dropbox have defined themselves as virtual-first companies. Airbnb said you can work anywhere, for life.

Many offices have been scaled back. Some have reinvented themselves – gone are the hot desks and cubicles – instead it is a place designed for creativity and collaboration – meeting rooms, social spaces, creative studios.

In fact that’s the point. It’s not about where you work, its about why and how you work most effectively.

There is a more profound transformation than just home or work. It is about the role of organisations in society, the role of talent in organisations, how teams can be most effective, what attracts GenZ, and much more. Teal organisations emerge, Netflix pride themselves on a no-rules culture, Haufne elect their leaders annually, DBS calls itself a 26000 person start-up.

Here are some of the best sources to explore on future of working:

• Future Work: rethinking why and how we work by Peter Fisk
• Peter Fisk’s The Recode Program, including Work Recoded
• The Next Great Disruption is Hybrid Work by Microsoft
• Microsoft’s New Future of Work Report 2022
• The Good Work Framework by WEF
• McKinsey’s The Future of Work after Covid-19
• Resetting the future of work agenda by World Economic Forum
• Workbook for work strategies for post-Covid recovery by Deloitte
• Reimagining the office and worklife after Covid by McKinsey
• In Australia the post-pandemic office is already here, says WSJ
• Human Capital Trends 2021 report by Deloitte
• Unilever’s Future of Work Summit Report 2022
• What Is Your Organization’s Long-Term Remote Work Strategy? in HBR
• MIT’s Leading the Future of Work
• Employee attitudes to remote working from McKinsey
• Cognizant’s From/To Future of Work and Humans Wanted
• Humanocracy and the BMI Test by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini

In the midst of all this, what is the future of the office?

Jeremy Myerson and Philip Ross are founders of Unwork, a consulting firm specialising in office design, or more broadly, work design. They are also founders of the WorkTech Academy.

They’ve just published a new book, “Unworking“.

Here’s why. “Right in the middle of the biggest transformation of work and workplace for a generation, our new book seeks to provide an essential guide to the future by exploring 10 key forces at play.”

“We’ve put our heads together to create a panoramic view of the workplace and a manifesto for ‘Unworking’, – unlearning old habits and rituals established for an outdated office and crafting and creating new ones fit for an age of digital technology, design innovation, and diverse workforces.

We explore how the working patterns and established principles of the office over the past 100 years are now being disrupted by new ideas. Our book aims to bring these new concepts and ways of thinking to life.”

The book will make you think back to the offices in episodes of Mad Men through to the hybrid revolution that is currently underway, with conversations on important topics such as the four-day week, remote work and diversity and inclusion.

How can your office help create a happier workforce? How could your workplace contribute to your team’s wellbeing?

By examining 10 forces of change that all business leaders should understand, Ross and Myerson encourage us to reflect on and rid ourselves of defunct habits and rituals established by an outdated office.

The result leaves you free to create new blueprints for an age of digital technology, design innovation and diverse workforces.

 

What can we learn from today’s most inspiring business leaders?

In bring together the best ideas, insights and innovative approaches to business,  I wanted to explore the world’s most inspiring as well as innovative business leaders … leaders who really are changing their worlds, right now.

They are transformers, stepping up to imagine new futures, taking their organisations to new places,  in pursuit of a better future.

Of course, there is a diverse range of business leaders to learn from – some good, others less so. My personal favourites include Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Piyush Gupta at DBS, and Zhang Ruimin from Haier.

Some leaders are great in some ways, but not so good otherwise. We’re inspired by the incredible ambition, and unstoppable determination of Elon Musk, yet I’m not sure I admire how he behaves or treats others.

Some people are just truly amazing people. Tan Le, for example, the Vietnamese boat refugee who became a world leading neuroscientist, or Warren Buffett, still dreaming and investing for the future, now in his nineties.

Entrepreneurs have fabulous stories, like Sebastian Thrun who went from GoogleX to Udacity to Kitty Hawk, or Tobi Lütke transforming the world’s retailers. As do corporate leaders like Bernard Arnault and Mary Barra.

The new DNA of leadership

Having spent many hours with leaders, one to one, and with their teams – teaching, coaching and advising them on strategies and change – and explored the many leadership theories, and insights from today’s most inspiring leaders – it became clear that there are some common attributes.

These attributes form a pyramid, somewhat analogous to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. At the foundation are the essentials required to operate, and deliver performance. Above these are the attributes required for progress, to make sense of change, to find new growth, and drive innovation.

At the top are the attributes required of leaders who want to transform their organisations, guided by purpose beyond profit, to create a better business, and a better world.

The key question for any leader should be “what kind of future do you want to create, shape and lead?” Leaders need the courage to step up, to envision and implement this future.

For that reason, I’ve brought together 25 of the best video stories of leaders. What can you learn from each of them?

50 Inspiring Leaders … video stories

Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe co-founder & CEO …  Wojcicki started out on Wall Street, and read an analyst report that said the future of healthcare is data. She flew to Stanford, and set up 23andMe, the DNA diagnostic business. Listen to he talk on the benefits of DNA testing, and the future of medicine. Recently she went public, partnered with drugs companies to make personalised medicines, and launched a telehealth DTC business.

• Read more about Anne Wojcicki and 23andMe.

Bernard Arnault, LVMH chairman and CEO … Arnault is the world’s richest man and the mastermind behind the world’s biggest luxury group, LVMH. But even he had his doubters early on. He built a huge portfolio of luxury brands, which work separately but with collective benefits. One significant area of group collaboration has been in embracing digital platforms, and entering Asian markets, where young people are now the core audience.

• Read more about Bernard Arnault

Shou Chew, TikTok CEO  … the Singapore entrepreneur started out at Goldman Sachs where he led investment in Alibaba, Xiaomi, and then Bytedance. He joined Xiaomi in 2015 as CFO, and then Bytedance as CFO 6 years later. Three months after joining the Chinese AI business, he became CEO of their TikTok business.

Here, in a TED interview, he describes how the video app works – from what distinguishes its algorithm and drives virality to the challenges of content moderation and digital addiction. TikTok, beyond all its controversies, is today a cultural phenomenon, seeking  – he says – “to inspire creativity and bring joy” by providing users with “a window to discover, a canvas to create, and bridges for people to connect.”

Jane Fraser, CEO of Citi … Fraser recently stepped up to CEO of the banking group, and became the first woman to lead one of Wall Street’s top banks, saying that leaders need “curiosity, creativity and courage”. She started out in the UK, and was not afraid to take a career break. She has worked across the world, and brings a very different perspective to the top of one of America’s leading banks.

• Read more about Jane Fraser.

Patrick Brown, CEO of Impossible Foods … Brown, the Stanford professor was heading towards a quiet retirement, but then stepped away from academia to start a business with a passion to eliminate animals from human food. The early years were spent on R&D seeking to create the perfect alternative to a meat-based burger. The problem was consumers loved not just the taste, but also the smell, juice and sizzle. He found his solution in heme, extracted from clover roots, which simulated the effect of blood. He has since scaled the business, starting in upmarket restaurants, then moving to fast food, then to supermarkets, then globally, in particular to Asia.

• Read more about Pat Brown and Impossible Foods

Tan Le, founder of Emotiv …  Le was a boat refugee from Vietnam, who found herself stranded with her mother in the South China Sea. Rescued by a British oil tanker, she arrived in Australia determined to make the most of every opportunity. She learnt English, worked hard, qualified as a lawyer, but was then attracted by neuroscience, Her company Emotiv is merging the human brain with technology and blurring the line between science fiction and reality. But before changing other people’s lives, she had to change her own.

• Read more about Tan Le

Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO … in 2014, he stepped up to take the fading tech giant to a new place, embracing AI and cloud as engines of transformation, and turning Microsoft from a $300 million into a $2 trillion business. In particular he gave the organisation purpose and mindset – famously, a growth mindset, a concept developed by Carol Dweck and saying “I want to build an organisation of learn it alls, not know it alls”. Much else has changed in Microsoft, as he opened it up, with new collaborations and ventures in every market.

• Read more about Satya Nadella

Jessica Tan, co-CEO of Ping An … Ping An is one of the world’s largest insurance companies, based inn Schenzen. Tan, with a background in consulting, joined the executive team to look at new ways to grow the business, in particular into new markets. She recognised the huge opportunity for finding a low-cost, accessible healthcare model in China and beyond. Building an ecosystem of partners – doctors, pharmacies, clinics, technologies and data experts, she has created Good Doctor, the world’s largest online healthcare platform.

• Read more about Jessica Tan and Ping An 

Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO of Chobani … Ulukaya is the Anatolian shepherd who grew up as a nomad in north eastern Turkey, went to USA, and created the world’s leading brand of Greek yogurt, Chobani. He calls himself the anti-CEO, recently won the Global Citizen of the Year award, and wants to give all his money away to charities fighting poverty and homelessness.

• Read more about Hamdi Ulukaya

Sebastian Thrun, Udacity founder and CEO of Kitty Hawk …  Thrun spent his early years in academia and then at Alphabet, one of the founders of the Moonshot Factory, now known as the X Company. Described as this tech wizard he left to reinvent the way in which the world learns, with nano-degree digital eduction business Udacity. He is now seeking to launch the flying car market with Kitty Hawk.

• Read more about Sebastian Thrun

Emily Weiss, Glossier founder and CEO … Having started out as a Vogue journalist, she found success in her blog which engaged thousands of women in talking more deeply about their love of beauty products, which they liked best and how they used them. This spurred her to create a business built on a community of passionate consumers, essentially a community-based or C2C brand. With Glossier her mission to reinvent the beauty industry. She talks about the importance of brand authenticity and her company’s emphasis on deep online engagement with its consumers.

• Read more about Emily Weiss and Glossier

Neil Blumenthal and David Gilboa, co-founders Warby Parker … the four founders were students at Wharton business school. Fed up with the high cost of prescription glasses, they decided to do something about it.

• Read more about Warby Parker

Zhang Ruimin, Haier CEO …  he recently stepped down after 30 years leading Haier, now the world’s largest home appliances company, talking about his innovative and entrepreneurial business model, Rendanheyi. In 2019 I interviewed Zhang Ruimin for my book Business Recoded. As a fellow physicist, he talked about quantum mechanics. Applied to organisation culture, innovation and progress. And much more. Here he talks about rendanheyi, how to create a living organisation.

• Read more about Zhang Ruimin and Haier

Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, cofounders of BioNTech … the immunologists (and married couple) share how their decades of mRNA research powered the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine – and what this could mean for the future of vaccines and more. As the Covid-19 pandemic struck, they rapidly pivoted a decade of research into new vaccines for cancer, into a way in which mRNA could address the pandemic virus. They gathered an ecosystem of experts and partners around their Mainz base, and in 6 months were able to develop a Covid vaccine. Compare that to the more usual 10 years or more.

• Read more about Uğur Şahin and Biontech

Marcos Galperin, CEO and co-founder of Mercado Libre … the Buenos Aires-based online marketplace has become the most valuable company in Latin America. It operates in 18 countries, although Brazil alone accounts for 65% of its revenue, growing to 96% when including Argentina and Mexico. Galperin shares his expertise. lessons learned, and best practices within the e-commerce industry in Latin America.

• Read more about Marcos Galperin and Mercado Libre 

Hooi Ling Tan, Grab co-founder … discusses growing the ride-hailing platform that became a “super-app” in Southeast Asia and how digitizing the region’s economy has helped empower both drivers and customers.

Read more about Hooi Ling Tan and Grab

Jacek Olczak, CEO of Philip Morris International … driven by a vision to make the world smoke-free, to “kill the Marlboro Man by 2025”, and in shifting from its old business, to drive new growth and value creation.

• Read more about Philip Morris‘ Smoke Free Future

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUbUuv7urlw

Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors … She challenged the traditional culture of GM in dramatic style, rejecting complacency and embracing new tech, on a mission to reinvent her industry. In this video she discusses how her company will transition to an all-electric light-duty fleet by 2035. But how do you let go of the old business, when it accounts for nearly 100% of your profits?

• Read more about Mary Barra

Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder … talks about the early days of creating Amazon, after leaving his Wall Street banking job to create “the world’s largest online bookstore”, what he’s learned since then, and his rocket company, Blue Origin.

• Read more about Jeff Bezos

Tobias Lütke, founder and CEO of Shopify … giving every small shop the power to compete online in a global marketplace, how technology is transforming business and markets, and how he sees the future of retail.

• Read more about Tobi Lutke

Henrik Andersen, CEO of Vestas … the world leader in wind power, the world’s most sustainable company in 2022, what is the future of energy and what is the green transformation the biggest change in society since the industrial revolution.

• More about Vestas, the world’s most sustainable company

Bob Iger, former chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company … from his early days as a weatherman, he transformed the company into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world. Then he retired in 2021. However at the end of 2022, Disney was struggling and the new CEO was fired. Disney’s board felt that Iger was the best person to sort out the business, and so he is back as CEO again.

• More about Bob Iger

Jensen Huang, Nvidia founder and CEO … AI is transforming our world. The software that enables computers to do things that once required human perception and judgment depends largely on hardware made possible by Jensen Huang. He cofounded Nvidia in 1993, building more powerful computer chips for video games. Here he talks about the next advances in computing, the future of AI, and the “omniverse” which is Nvidia’s metaverse.

• More about Jensen Huang

Indra Nooyi, former CEO of Pepsico … a champion of long-term thinking and a “performance with purpose” strategy for growth, and helping more women succeed in the workplace.

Eric Yuan, Founder and CEO, Zoom … Yuan founded Zoom in 2011 to “deliver happiness” and bring people together in a frictionless video environment. He led Zoom to one of the highest-performing tech IPOs of 2019. Time magazine named him 2020 Businessperson of Year. He was also named Comparably’s Best CEO for Diversity in 2021.

• More about Eric Yuan

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple … is joined by Jony Ive, former Apple Chief Design Officer and LoveFrom co-founder, and Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of Steve Jobs, and founder of the Emerson Collective.

• More about Tim Cook

David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank … discuss why he is passionate about social impact, his drive to continuously be challenged, and how he reinvented the wheel of the banking system. “Why would you wait decades to solve issues if you can now?” he says.

• More about Nubank

Ben Francis, founder and CEO of Gymshark … talks about how he started athleisure brand  as a teenager and how he has scaled it to be one of the UK’s most valuable privately held companies.

• More about Ben Francis

Olivier Bernhard, founder of On … On is a Swiss running shoe company created by Bernhard, a six-time Ironman champion and former professional triathlete. In just 11 years, the upstart company went from zero to a valuation over $7 billion. This is the story about how a two time world champion and his friends landed Roger Federer to help create one of the fastest growing shoe companies in the world.

• More about On Running

Toni Petersson, CEO of Oatly … talks about the company’s strategy to transform the non-dairy sector, the forces behind a growth in plant-based diets, and why sustainability is core to the company’s mission. Petersson bizarrely sang in the brand’s Super Bowl ad, a tune he wrote himself accompanied by his keyboard in a wide-open field of oats.  Yet, the lyrics, which included, “it’s like milk, but made for humans,” and “wow, no cow,” were surprisingly catchy.

Brynn Putnam, founder of Mirror … she quit a career in ballet and invested her $15000 savings in her start-up idea, then secured $3 million in venture capital on the same day that she gave birth to her son, then in the summer of 2020, sold her business f or $500 million to Lululemon. All in two years.

Shou Chew, CEO of TikTok … How did TikTok become the app that every other company is chasing? Where will the social media company go next? From Singapore to Harvard Business School, Chew became an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in London before later becoming the CFO and President of International at Xiaomi Technology. He is now CEO of TikTok, and also CFO of parent company ByteDance .

Mike Cessario, founder and CEO of Liquid Death … He spent years figuring out how to make water cool. Now his brand is valued at $700 million. After attending the 2009 Warped Tour, Cessario realized bottled water lacked irreverent marketing like that of energy drinks. With about $1,500, he created a commercial before he had an actual can of water. It went viral and investors saw the potential. Liquid Death has raised $195 million and is on track to reach $130 million in sales by the end of 2022.

José Neves, Founder and CEO, Farfetch … the Portuguese billionaire is founder of Farfetch, a global luxury fashion online platform, founded in 2007, that sells products from over 700 boutiques and brands from around the world. In September 2018, the company went public.  In October 2021, Farfetch launched its in-house fashion brand, There Was One.

Jon Moeller, CEO of Procter & Gamble … He joined the consumer goods business in 1988, became CFO in 2009, and then CEO in 2021. Here he discusses company innovation, their drive toward sustainability, and his experience navigating supply chain disruptions.

Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of SpaceX … She talks about balancing ambitious goals, putting people on Mars in a decade, leading collaboratively, and why she likes making decisions with data. … “Aim high. We have always achieved what we wanted to, never in the the timeline. We fail on timeline, but that feels like the right fail to make as oppose to not achieving what you are trying to achieve technically.”

Teiichi Goto, CEO of Fujifilm … When the camera film was fundamentally disrupted by the smartphone, Kodak lost its way and headed to oblivion. Fufilifm meanwhile started innovating, initially into medical imagining, and then into beauty products (skincare is equally a film, but applied to the skin) with Amore Pacific, and then into other forms of healthcare. It’s innovation process has the slogan, Never Stop.

Brian Chesky, co-founder and CEO of Airbnb … here he talks about the founding story of Airbnb, how to acquire customer loyalty, lessons in crisis management and more.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, and its subsidiary Google … Under his leadership, Google has been focused on developing products and services, powered by the latest advances in AI, that offer help in moments big and small.

Tristan Walker, CEO of Walker & Company … In 2018, he sold his brand toProcter & Gamble, becoming the first black CEO under the P&G umbrella. He is founder of CODE2040, a program that matches high performing black and latino undergraduate and graduate coders and software engineering students with Silicon Valley start-ups for summer internships.

Astro Teller, Captain of X, Leader of Google’s Moonshot Factory … discusses the mission of X, what it means to be a cultural entrepreneur and how innovation can drive business.

Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway … the legendary investor shares two stories about women who started from nothing and sold their businesses to him.

• More about Warren Buffett

Have the courage to lead the future

The implications for business are broad and significant: a better approach to people and the jobs they do, organisation structures and how people work, a different approach to strategic development and innovation, how brands develop and engage customers, and a more enlightened approach to how businesses grow to create and share value.

The new codes of business challenge our deeply engrained assumptions and practices, some extending and strengthening what we already do, others replacing the old ways.

There is no magic formula for business success, although plenty of concepts and models, frameworks and tools which can help. Developing leaders in today’s world is much more of a mindset, a way of thinking, opening your mind to a new world of possibilities, and the many ways to succeed in it.

More

• Start: Peter Fisk on Leadership
• Book: “Business Recoded: Have the courage to create a better future”
• Book: “Gamechangers: Are you ready to change the world?“
• Book: “Business Genius: A more inspired approach to leadership”
• Article: The 10x Leader
• Article: Amplifying Potential
• Article: Are you the Einstein or Picasso of Business?
• Article: Moonshot Thinking
• Article: What will you do when you grow up?
• Programs: WaveRiders: Transformational Leadership

“Harvard Business Review” has become the bible of smart management thinking.

Now, in its 100th year, some of the most influential contributors and topics have included:

• Michael Porter on competitive strategy
• Clay Christensen on disruptive innovation
• Tim Brown on design thinking
• Linda Hill on being a first-time manager
• Daniel Goleman on emotional intelligence
• Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee on artificial intelligence
• Robert Livingston on racial equity at work
• Amy Edmondson and Mark Mortensen on psychological safety
• Robert Cialdini on the science of persuasion
• Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne on blue ocean strategy
• Gary Hamel and CK Prahalad on strategic intent
• Peter Drucker on managing yourself.

For the last 30 years I’ve looked forwards to each edition landing on my doormat, and being able to browse the archives online.

Sometimes it’s a lot to take in, and I make do with the excellent summaries. I also take comfort from the stored knowledge on my bookshelf, or online, available on tap.

But what’s best is when you sit down and immerse yourself in a great article.

I remember in my early days of business I did this. After just a few articles, on customer-centricity as I remember, I started to develop a richer perspective, confidence and capability to debate challenges, and implement solutions.

I was soon approaching work with a much richer global perspective. dropping anecdotes about companies, academic models, and latest ideas. It also helped me to see a bigger picture, alternative views, and new opportunities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pokle4K-kS8&t=3s

If I was to pick 5 articles for a quick re-immersion today, I’d probably go for these below, which I’ve interspersed with a few of HBR’s great catalytic videos just as examples:

The Authenticity Paradox

Herminia Ibarra (2015)

Authenticity has become the gold standard for leadership. But as INSEAD’s Herminia Ibarra argues, a simplistic understanding of what authenticity means can limit leaders’ growth and impact. All too often, we tend to latch on to authenticity as an excuse for sticking with what’s comfortable. But few jobs allow us to do that for long. In this article, Ibarra explains how leaders can develop an “adaptively authentic” style by experimenting with many different leadership approaches. It’s OK to change tactics from one day to the next, she says. That’s not being fake, it’s how we figure out what’s right for the challenges and circumstances we face. Three strategies can help you break free from a self-concept that’s too rigid: (1) Learn from diverse role models. Growth necessarily involves some form of imitation, but don’t copy just one person’s leadership style. Borrow selectively from various people to create your own collage. (2) Work on getting better. Set learning goals–not just performance targets–to focus on the value of experimentation. Stretch the limits of who you are by doing new things that make you uncomfortable but help you discover by direct experience who you want to become. (3) Don’t stick to “your story.” Jettison outdated self-concepts and draw on personal narratives that fit your circumstances as you’re taking on new challenges.

Blue Ocean Strategy

Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne (2004)

Despite a long-term decline in the circus industry, Cirque du Soleil profitably increased revenue twenty-two-fold over the last 10 years by reinventing the circus. Rather than competing within the confines of the existing industry or trying to steal customers from rivals, Cirque developed uncontested market space that made the competition irrelevant. Cirque created what the authors call a blue ocean–a previously unknown market space. In blue oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for growth that is both profitable and rapid. In red oceans–that is, in all the industries already existing–companies compete by grabbing for a greater share of limited demand. As the market space gets more crowded, prospects for profits and growth decline. Products turn into commodities, and increasing competition turns the water bloody. There are two ways to create blue oceans. One is to launch completely new industries, as eBay did with online auctions. But it’s much more common for a blue ocean to be created from within a red ocean when a company expands the boundaries of an existing industry. In studying more than 150 blue ocean creations in over 30 industries, the authors observed that the traditional units of strategic analysis–company and industry–are of limited use in explaining how and why blue oceans are created. The most appropriate unit of analysis is the strategic move, the set of managerial actions and decisions involved in making a major market-creating business offering. Creating blue oceans builds brands. So powerful is blue ocean strategy, in fact, that a blue ocean strategic move can create brand equity that lasts for decades.

Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave

Joseph Bower and Clayton Christensen (1995)

One of the most consistent patterns in business is the failure of leading companies to stay at the top of their industries when technologies or markets change. Why is it that established companies invest aggressively – and successfully – in the technologies necessary to retain their current customers but then fail to make the technological investments that customers of the future will demand? The fundamental reason is that leading companies succumb to one of the most popular, and valuable, management dogmas: they stay close to their customers. To remain at the top of their industries, managers must first be able to spot disruptive technologies. To pursue these technologies, managers must protect them from the processes and incentives that are geared to serving mainstream customers. And the only way to do that is to create organizations that are completely independent of the mainstream business.

Teamwork on the Fly

Amy Edmondson (2012)

In a fast-paced and ever-changing business environment, traditional teams aren’t always practical. Instead, companies increasingly employ teaming: gathering experts in temporary groups to solve problems they may be encountering for the first and only time. This flexible approach was essential to the completion of the Water Cube, the building that hosted swimming and diving events during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, and to the 2010 rescue of 33 Chilean miners. More and more people in nearly every industry now work on teams that vary in duration and have constantly shifting membership. Teaming presents technical and interpersonal challenges: People must get up to speed quickly on new topics and learn to work with others from different functions, divisions, and cultures. Several project management principles–scoping out the challenge, structuring the boundaries, and sorting tasks for execution–help leaders facilitate effective teaming. Leaders can also foster cross-boundary collaboration by emphasizing purpose, building psychological safety, and embracing failure and conflict. Individuals who learn to team well acquire knowledge, skills, and networks. Organizations learn to solve complex, cross-disciplinary problems, build stronger and more unified cultures, deliver a wide variety of products and services, and anticipate and manage unexpected events. Teaming helps companies and individuals execute and learn at the same time.

What Makes a Leader?

Daniel Goleman (2004)

When asked to define the ideal leader, many would emphasize traits such as intelligence, toughness, determination, and vision–the qualities traditionally associated with leadership. Often left off the list are softer, more personal qualities–but they are also essential. Although a certain degree of analytical and technical skill is a minimum requirement for success, studies indicate that emotional intelligence may be the key attribute that distinguishes outstanding performers from those who are merely adequate. Psychologist and author Daniel Goleman first brought the term “emotional intelligence” to a wide audience with his 1995 book of the same name, and Goleman first applied the concept to business with this 1998 classic HBR article. In his research at nearly 200 large, global companies, Goleman found that truly effective leaders are distinguished by a high degree of emotional intelligence. Without it, a person can have first-class training, an incisive mind, and an endless supply of good ideas, but he or she still won’t be a great leader. The chief components of emotional intelligence–self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill–can sound unbusinesslike, but Goleman, cochair of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations, based at Rutgers University, found direct ties between emotional intelligence and measurable business results.

Happy 100 years, HBR!