Peter Fisk

Working in the UAE recently, I was invited to meet some of the nation’s leaders to discuss the impact of technology on future trends. I arrived at UAE’s new Ministry of Possibilities in Dubai to be greeted by a robot, and was soon immersed inside a merged reality space, combining governance, a diversity of collaborative innovation projects, and tech education.

Omar Sultan Al Olama, the UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence (how many nations have one of those?) had just launched BRAIN, the National AI Program, with an ambition for the UAE “to become world leaders in AI by 2031” and boost the local economy by $182 billion. A leap to the future, maybe, but a practical growth strategy too.

From Siri to self-driving cars, AI has the potential to transform our human capacity to embrace the power of technology, and solve the most complex problems, from climate change to eradicating disease, cybersecurity to neuro-controls. Whilst we image AI taking the humanoid form of Sophia, the human-like robot created by Hong-Kong based Hansen Robotics, AI comes in many forms, from Alphabet’s Deepmind to Tesla’s autonomous cars.

“The Age of AI” is a documentary series hosted by Robert Downey Jr. covering the ways artificial intelligence, machine learning and neural networks will change the world. Here are three of the episodes from the 8 part series:

AI and humanity

Can AI make music? Can it feel excitement and fear? Is it alive? Will.i.am and Mark Sagar push the limits of what a machine can do. How far is too far, and how much further can we go?

AI and wellbeing

The human body is not infallible, but through the wonders of AI research scientists are finding ways to address those imperfections. AI has the potential to heal, enhance and make up for the things our bodies lack.

AI and becoming superhuman

Through life changing accidents, and data minded through NASCAR, human beings are finding ways to rebuild one another so that we are better, faster, and stronger than ever before and all with the help of AI. Once nothing more than the stuff of comic books and TV shows, we truly have the technology to become modern superheroes

Today’s AI is more formally known as narrow (or weak) AI, meaning that it is designed to perform a narrow task, like playing chess or searching online. We see this embedded in our everyday lives, from anti-lock brakes in cars to fraud protection of payments, email spam filters and autocomplete forms. Future AI, however, seeks to take a more integrated form, known as general (or strong) AI, with the ability to do any task, and far more autonomy.

In healthcare, for example, AI can already interpret scans, sequence genomes, and synthesise new drugs within minutes, whilst also powering virtual nurses and robotics surgeons.

However, AI brings many ethical questions, risks associated with inbuilt biases, and has inconsistent regulation. Gender, race and ethnic biases can wrongly negatively influence the criminal justice system; fake news and misinformation can spread rapidly through bots and social media it threatens privacy and security; and it could displace many humans from jobs.

AI is the new rocket fuel for business innovation and growth. Here are some more examples:

• American Express processes $1 trillion in transactions and has 110 million cards in operation, relying on AI-based algorithms to help detect fraud in near real time, therefore saving millions in losses. Its data analytics also enables apps to engage cardholders with personalised offers, and merchants to manage performance.
• Burberry uses AI to combat counterfeit products and improve sales and customer relationships. Its loyalty programs go beyond rewards using that data to personalise the shopping experience online, and to augment the physical store experience using intelligent devices, from smartphones and biometric sensors.
• Darktrace Enterprise Immune System slows attacks on computing systems by emulating the way humans fend off viruses. An AI-enabled platform embeds in a network, learns what be­­haviours are normal, and flags anomalies, automatically slowing or stopping compromised networks and devices.
• Lemonade is reinventing insurance to be instant, easy, and transparent. It offers home insurance powered by AI and behavioural economics. By replacing brokers with bots and machine learning, Lemonade promises zero paperwork and instant policies and claims. As a B-Corp, it also has a Give Back scheme to non-profits.
• Microsoft has put AI at the core of its service. Cortana is a virtual assistant, chatbots run Skype and answer queries, Office includes intelligent features such as weather, traffic and personal schedule intelligence, and business customers can use the Microsoft AI Platform to create their own intelligent tools.
• Netflix’s incredible growth is largely due to its AI-driven personalisation, bringing together the viewing histories, searches and ratings of viewers to offer recommendations to you and others like you. It then uses this intelligence to develop new preference-matched content, such as House of Cards.
• Rare Carat is disrupting the diamond market. Its platform uses blockchain technology to track provenance and verify certification, massively improving authenticity and ethics of diamond sourcing, and then AI-based analytics to compare the price of diamonds, connecting buyers with appropriate retailers.

“Everything invented in the past 150 years will be reinvented using AI within the next 15 years,” says Randy Dean of Launchpad AI, and maybe not surprisingly PwC estimates that it could add $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

© Peter Fisk 2020

Extract from Business Recoded by Peter Fisk

Image: Unsplash

In an exclusive extract from my forthcoming book Business Recoded, meet one of the most inspiring business leaders, shaking up today’s world. She embraces the opportunities of relentless change, the power of disruptive technologies, and the courage to create a better future in her own vision. In the book, I explore the stories of many of the world’s most fascinating leaders right now, and develop 49 codes that help you redefine the future of your business, and yourself.

The Leadership Code of Cristina Junqueira

Cristina Junqueira was working at Itaú Unibanco, one of Brazil’s more traditional banks in 2013, managing their credit card portfolio when she gained the largest bonus of her career. She quit immediately,  realising that she wanted to change people’s lives, not just make money.

Within months, she got together with two friends, David Velez and Edward Wible, to launch Nubank, a Brazilian fintech company that seeks to make banking more accessible to everyone in a company with a huge underclass. Nubank is looking to tools like low-interest, no-fee credit cards, high-interest savings accounts, and an app-based credit system to seeking to serve 45 million unbanked Brazilians, neglected by competitors.

In the early days of start-up, Junqueira found herself doing everything from leasing a small office in Sao Paulo to designing the company’s new website. “If somebody called our customer service line, it would ring on my cellphone,” she says. For Junqueira, it was an even more challenging time, because she was pregnant with her first child.

Junqueira is most proud of how Nubank has developed for women. She says that HR policies were very much informed by her early struggles. “Many of the structural choices we’ve made in terms of gender equality and inclusion are reflective of the fact that I have been here from the beginning,” she told Quartz magazine.

“Looking back at my corporate career, I remember how tough it was to work in those predominantly male environments and do things like wear suits just to fit in,” she recalls. “At Nubank I was determined to create a working environment without all the stupid barriers that are very detrimental to women’s career development.”

Nubank’s policies that address gender equality include bringing more women into its technology teams with events like “Yes, She Codes!” a recruitment process specifically targeted at female software developers.  The company also uses blind recruitment to minimise gender biases, and has a mentoring scheme specifically for female leaders, which involves discussion groups aimed at tackling unconscious bias, and a program that allows new mothers to stay connected while they take maternity leave.

All this translates into a more inclusive work culture. Women make up 43% of the digital bank’s 2,000 employees, including 30% of all senior roles, compared to 8% in the sector.

By 2020, Junqueira has a second child, and Nubank is ready to spread its wings further, into new markets such as Mexico and Argentina, and exploring new products like personal loans, investment products, and accounts for small and medium-­size businesses. The credit card was the first to allow Brazilians to apply for and check their balance entirely via mobile, and Nubank is now the world’s largest digital bank outside Asia, and is valued at over $10 billion.

 

Crisis and downturns are the moments of shake-up … when companies drive innovation, and entrepreneurs disrupt markets. Now is the time to look forwards not back.

“The best way to predict the future is to create it” said Abraham Lincoln.

The best opportunities for business – to find new growth, to engage customers more deeply, to stand out from the crowd, to improve their profitability – is by seizing the opportunities of changing markets. The best way to seize these changes is by innovating – not just innovating the product, or even the business itself – but by innovating the market.

In the old world we accepted markets as a given – the status quo – and competed within it, with slightly different products and services, or most usually by competing on price. Most new products were quickly imitated, leading to declining margins and commoditisation. Most companies now receognise that this is not a route to long-term success in a rapidly changing world.

Fast-changing markets demand fast-changing businesses.

Winning in this new world requires a bigger ambition – to change the game, not just play the game. Winners recognise that markets are malleable, geography is irrelevant and categories are outdated, that boundaries blur and new spaces emerge, and that practices and perceptions can be shaped to your advantage.

“Gamechangers” innovate their market, and then innovate their business with exponential impact. They start from the future back, making sense of change, seeing the new patterns and possibilities, harnessing the power of ideas and digital networks to win in new ways. This requires new leadership thinking, and for the whole business to innovate.

Who are the “gamechangers” of Chile right now?

Next month I will be working with Chile’s Banco BCI, to explore the challenges and opportunities of a changing world, with many of Chile’s business leaders.

Chile is often called “Chilecon Valley”, ranking among the top startup hubs in Latin America, and in 2019, it was considered the region’s most innovative country.

E-commerce to m-commerce, clean energy and agritech, are increasingly important sources of innovation in the country. In fact, with 44.2% mobile penetration and 82.3% of its population using the internet, Chile has one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in the region.

Here are some of the most interesting companies:

Algramo … smart plastic refills by tricycle

In a pilot that the Chile-based startup Algramo has been running since May with Unilever, customers can bring a reusable plastic bottle back to a vending machine mounted on an electric tricycle that travels around the city offering refills. An RFID code on the bottle gives discounts on future purchases, creating an incentive for customers to bring the same package back over and over again.

Cornershop … the Uber of home delivery

Cornershop is a Chilean-Mexican last-mile grocery delivery startup that operates in five Latin American countries, as well as in Canada. The company’s recent $450M acquisition by Uber is pending as the Chilean government continues to investigate the transaction and how it will affect the market. However, Cornershop’s expansion throughout Latin America remains unscathed as it starts 2020 with full operations in Brazil and enters the Colombian market.

NotCo … AI-driven plant-based foods

NotCo is a foodtech startup that uses AI algorithms to recreate animal-based foods like mayonnaise and milk, using only plant components. The startup recently caught the attention of Jeff Bezos, who decided to make NotCo his first investment in Latin America. NotCo was also recently featured in YouTube’s ‘The Age of AI’. With plans to go public by 2021, NotCo is expected to be Chile’s first unicorn. NotCo’s products can also be found in Brazil, Argentina, and the US.

Jooycar … smart car insurance

Jooycar is a connected-car and user-based insurance platform seeking to disrupt the auto insurance market in Latin America. The platform informs users about maintenance checks, efficient fuel usage, and how they can improve their driving, among other features. The auto tech platform currently offers its services in Chile, Mexico, and Peru, and plans to launch in the US in 2020.

Join me for Business Recoded: What Happens Next? online with Banco Bci, 10 November 2020.

Image: Unsplash

The engineers and scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have a strange tradition. At crucial moments in every space mission, they chomp on peanuts. This phenomenon began when a Ranger spacecraft successfully launched after a long run of failures. An engineer had brought a bag of peanuts into mission control that day. Since then, peanuts are eaten at every launch to ward off bad luck.

This shows that even the most scientific among us fear uncertainty. That’s why we engage in strange rituals – like eating peanuts or wearing our lucky jeans – to regain a sense of control. We can’t help feeling this way. Fear of the unknown helped keep our ancestors safe from saber-toothed tigers. But when we avoid uncertainty altogether, we close ourselves off to new possibilities.

Changing your attitude towards uncertainty opens you up to discovery.

Scientists don’t see uncertainty as something to fear. When faced with a dark, shadow-filled room, they don’t turn away like most of us. They poke around in it until they find a light switch. Once that light’s on, they can evaluate what they’ve found. There might be something curious in the room, or there may be another door leading to yet another mystery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Te-enCEE4

Here’s what the book also explores:

• The single principle Elon Musk used to revolutionize the aerospace industry (and how you can use the same principle to transform your life)
• An unstoppable astronaut training strategy that you can use to nail your next presentation or product launch
• How invisible rules constrain your thinking (and what to do about it)
• The one word you can use to boost your creativity (The use of this word is backed by several research studies, and I personally use it on a weekly basis both for myself and my team)​
• What George Costanza and rocket scientists have in common, and what you can learn from both in starting your next project
• What you should do first in tackling an audacious goal (and what you should NEVER do when tackling an audacious goal)
• My 2-step process for squashing fear of uncertainty and failure before it stops me from taking action
• What Einstein’s biggest blunder can teach you about how to launch your next project
• The fascinating story of the billion-dollar author and her eight-year-old secret weapon
• Why doing “nothing” is more valuable than you think

Here are some of the practical worksheets to get started.

In an exclusive extract from my forthcoming book Business Recoded, meet one of the most inspiring business leaders, shaking up today’s world. He embraces the opportunities of relentless change, the challenge to realign business with the environment, and the courage to create a better future in his own vision. In the book, I explore the stories of many of the world’s most fascinating leaders right now, and develop 49 codes that help you redefine the future of your business, and yourself.

The Leadership Code of René Redzepi

Redzepi is the world’s most celebrated chef. He could not have had a better education. His apprenticeship was served in two of the world’s greatest restaurants – Catalonia’s el Bulli and California’s The French Laundry.

Under the guidance of the great Ferran Adria he developed a passion for experimentation, and a love of seasonal ingredients. In Napa Valley he was instilled with a commitment to working with local suppliers.

In 2003, aged 25, he opened Noma in his native Copenhagen (an abbreviation of the words “Nordic” and “mad”, which means food in Danish). He wanted to create a cuisine that represented the environment in which he found himself, giving rise to the term “new Nordic cuisine.”

Redzepi sought to develop a cuisine that reflected the soil, topography and climate of the place. He says “All of the people who work in the kitchen with me go out into the forests and on to the beach. It’s a part of their job. If you work with me, you will often be starting your day in the forest or on the shore because I believe foraging will shape you as a chef.”

From this a 10-point New Nordic Cuisine Manifesto was drawn up in collaboration with other Nordic chefs, with an emphasis on seasonality and simplicity.

The aims of the New Nordic Cuisine are:

• To express the purity, freshness, simplicity and ethics associated with the region.
• To reflect the changing of the seasons in every meal.
• To base cooking on ingredients and produce whose characteristics are particularly excellent in Nordic climates, landscapes and waters.
• To combine the demand for good taste with modern knowledge of health and well-being.
• To promote Nordic products and the variety of Nordic producers – and to spread the word about their underlying cultures.
• To promote animal welfare and a sound production process in the seas, on farmland and in the wild.
• To develop potentially new applications of traditional Nordic food products.
• To combine the best in Nordic cookery and culinary traditions with impulses from abroad.
• To combine local self-sufficiency with regional sharing of high-quality products.
• To join forces with consumer representatives, other cooking craftsmen, agriculture, the fishing, food, retail and wholesale industries, researchers, teachers, politicians and authorities on this project for the benefit and advantage of everyone in the Nordic countries.

More than the ingredients, people became his passion. He sees eating as a deeply human experience, emotional and personal, achieved as much through the service and style of his staff as what people eat, and where they are.

His staff have become a family, as he describes them, without the typical hustle and stress of a busy kitchen. Best known to customers is his long-serving maitre’d, Ali Sonko, a tall Gambian in his sixties, with an infectious smile, who started as a dishwasher in the kitchens when it first opened, and now owns a 10% stake in the business.

Equally, his partnership with local suppliers secures him the freshest produce, and their collaboration in creating dishes that continue to inspire both him and his clientele.

The original Noma in Copenhagen closed in 2017, with Redzepi and his team seeking to reinvent the restaurant. Initially they open an incredibly popular pop-up in Mexico, a kind of vacation to gain new inspiration, whilst they established a new restaurant, less than a mile from the old one.

Situated on a beautiful lake, the new Noma is a former ammunition storage facility for the Danish military, with numerous greenhouses where the produce is grown. Designed by famed local architect Bjarke Ingels, the buildings have been converted to resemble an old Danish village.

Originally, menus were based on what ingredients were most readily available, although using meet and fish throughout the year. It has now moved to a three season model – focusing on seafood for 4 months, then vegetables for 4 months, and then game.

Of course getting into the restaurant is probably the hardest part. Noma release reservations three times during a year, with thousands of cultured diners waiting to click on the website the moment it opens. You also need to pay at the time of booking, typically around $350 per person, although a meal typically consists of around 20 courses.

As a quick taster, the first course might be a plant pot with a thyme plant. Take a straw, and you’ll find an exquisite soup inside. A tart of crisp potato and nasturtium flowers might follow, and then a salted seaweed roll, fresh from the local beach. Quail’s eggs topped with fresh berries are next, then cucumber skin cannelloni filled with nuts and mushrooms. We’re still on the starters, at this point. You’ll need to visit to discover the main course.

“I think that in our part of the world, Scandinavia, we are one of the pioneers of showing that gastronomy can be something – high gastronomy can be something very, very present and doesn’t have to involve, you know, what is perceived as the normal luxury items that belong in a high gastronomy restaurant” he reflects.

With two Michelin stars, Rene Redzepi’s Noma has been voted the best restaurant in the world on four occasions.

© Peter Fisk 2020. Business Recoded will be published in December 2020. Order your copy now.

In an exclusive extract from my forthcoming book Business Recoded, meet one of the most inspiring business leaders, shaking up today’s world. He embraces the opportunities of relentless change, the challenge to realign business with society, and the courage to create a better future in his own vision. In the book, I explore the stories of many of the world’s most fascinating leaders right now, and develop 49 codes that help you redefine the future of your business, and yourself.

The Leadership Code of Hamdi Ulukaya

The Turkish-born Greek-style yogurt maker prioritises people over profits, believes in growth through gratitude, and has donated most of his wealth to refugees.

Ulukaya grew up in a Kurdish dairy-farming family in Turkey near to the Euphrates river, where they made cheese and yogurt. They led a semi-nomadic existence, herding their sheep. Ulukaya was actually born on one of the family’s long mountain treks. He left to study political science in Ankara and then emigrated to the USA in 1994, settling in upstate New York, an area which reminded him of eastern Turkey.

He studied English, and then business, while continuing to make traditional feta cheese in his kitchen, to earn some money. With a loan from the US Small Business Administration, he bought an old yogurt plant in 2005 and developed a recipe inspired by his Kurdish heritage. Two years later he started selling yogurt, under his brand name Chobani, derived from the Turkish word çoban meaning shepherd.

Within 5 years, Chobani was a billion-dollar business, riding on a wave of interest in protein-rich, low-fat yogurt. At the same time Greek-type yogurt grew from 1 to 50% share of the US yogurt sector. EY recognised him as their Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013, his personal fortune grew rapidly to over $2 billion, and Chobani is now the top selling strained yogurt brand in America.

However Ulukaya calls himself the “anti-CEO” because he dislikes many aspects of capitalism, particularly the notion of maximising value for shareholders (“the dumbest idea I have ever heard”). He hasn’t forgotten his humble roots, and has continually spoken about the rising inequalities in our world, blaming business for the suffering of the poor. He argues that too many of his fellow leaders blindly follow a “broken playbook”, calling for leaders to be more “noble”, to make more personal and financial sacrifices.

In an interview, he said “business people should promote a sense of purpose in their corporate culture to create a climate of positive change in business and the world. He stated that companies should focus on humanity and not just on their bottom lines. “Business is still the strongest, most effective way to change the world.”

© Peter Fisk 2020. Business Recoded will be published in December 2020. Order your copy now.

“Biomimicry” is the imitation of animals and plants, the models and systems of nature, to inspire new ways to solve complex human problems.

An early example was the study of birds to enable human flight. Although never successful in creating a “flying machine”, Leonardo da Vinci, who trained as an anatomist was fascinated by the flight of birds, inspiring his designs for mechanical flight. Centuries later, the Wright Brothers succeeded in human flight, apparently inspired by racing pigeons.

Otto Schmitt developed the concept of “biomimetics” in the 1950s, studying the nerves in squid  to engineer a device that replicated the biological system of nerve propagation. A decade later, Jack Steele coined the term “bionics” as “the science of systems which have some function copied from nature”.

Examples of innovations in today’s world inspired by nature include

• Bullet trains inspired by the kingfisher: the world’s fastest train is enabled by a nose cone that imitates the bird’s long beak, reducing noise and increasing speed.
• Climbing shoes such as the Vibram Five Fingers are inspired by geckos mimic the tiny hairs on a geckos toes which allows it to climb up vertical surface, creating an adhesive force.
• Wind turbines have become quieter and more efficient, producing 20% more output, by imitating the bumpy edges on the flippers of humpback whales. Scientists assumed smooth edges would be better, but nature showed differently.
• Surgical glue inspired by slug slime is non-toxic and super-sticky, enabling surgeons to repair heart values, patch-up holes, and repair cartilage.
• Bionic leaf creates hydrogen fuel from sunlight while removing carbon dioxide, through artificial photosynthesis inspired by the common leaf

“When we look at what is truly sustainable, the only real model that has worked over long periods of time is the natural world” says James Cameron, the producer of the epic sci-fi movie Avatar in which humans and technology fuse with the natural environment.

Scientist Janine Benyus is a leading authority on biomimicry as a way for innovators to be inspired by the ways in which the natural world has evolved over 3.8 billion years, in particular pointing to its interconnected systems, which we can learn much from.

Benyus’ organisation Biomimicry 3.8, based in Montana USA, has created a fabulous set of tools to support nature-inspired innovation. This includes the Design Lens (below) which sets out a framework for exploring how to design better solutions, in ways that might create better products for consumers, and also solve some of our biggest global challenges.

 

The world is on fire. Global contagions and unstoppable wildfires, social inequality and melting ice caps. Demanding consumers and disruptive technologies, unexpected shocks and stagnating growth.

Human CO₂ levels need to fall by 45% from their 2010 levels by 2030 if we are to avert a climate catastrophe (according to IPCC). 26 people now have more wealth than 3.8 billion people (Credit Suisse). We can’t afford to wait for political attitudes to change, or governments to act. Instead we should use the power of business to change our world.

It’s time for business to step up and be more. To reimagine brands as the most powerful, and inspiring, platform for change, driving innovation that solves bigger problems, inspiring consumers together to create more positive impact.

Think about its unique assets, resources and reach. Brands change hearts and minds, emotionally engaging with people’s aspirations and passions. Products and services can be innovated in ways that they do good as well as meet needs. Consumers and employees engage with brands every day, and collectively they can engage with each other to multiply their impact.

Watch my TED Talk, “Spider Silk and Sizzling Burgers” …

However we still have a long way to go … Today, the global economy is only 8.6% “circular” (even less than two years ago, when it was 9.1%).

The global “circularity gap” is widening, according to a new report, The Global Circularity Gap 2020, published by the Dutch organisation, Circle Economy. The negative trend can be explained by three related, underlying trends: high rates of extraction, ongoing stock build-up, and low levels of end-of-use processing and cycling.

The report finds that total resources entering the global economy have increased by 8.4% in just two years from 92.8 billion tonnes in 2015 to 100.6 billion tonnes in 2017, the latest year for which data is available.

In that period total extracted resources have increased by 9%, from 84.4 to 92 billion tonnes. But the total of materials that are reused has grown by just 3%, from 8.4 to 8.7 billion tonnes, and fallen as a proportion of overall material use.

Despite all of the facts, most companies are still locked into the “take-make-waste” tradition of the linear economy.

The report finds that total resources entering the global economy have increased by 8.4% in just two years from 92.8 billion tonnes in 2015 to 100.6 billion tonnes in 2017, the latest year for which data is available.

In that period total extracted resources have increased by 9%, from 84.4 to 92 billion tonnes. But the total of materials that are reused has grown by just 3%, from 8.4 to 8.7 billion tonnes, and fallen as a proportion of overall material use.

Despite all of the facts, most companies are still locked into the “take-make-waste” tradition of the linear economy.

Traditional levers such as regulation and taxation could force change, but a far better approach is to create desirable, positive change. This is where we come back to business, aligning consumer needs and aspirations, with better ways to solve them.

Brands like Toms trailblazed this new mindset. Blake Mycoskie’s “one for one” program, giving a free pair of shoes to children in poverty for every pair bought, created a powerful, desirable brand. Many brands now put sustainability at the core of their proposition (not just a supporting “CSR” initiative), creating better products, while also doing good:

• Adidas has just launched its latest “Futurecraft” sports shoes, spun from recycled threads that eliminate most waste, creating even lighter, better fitting shoes.
• Eileen Fisher, the American women’s fashion brand, “upcycles” consumers’ old worn-out clothes, turning them into beautiful, individual collectors’ items.
• Icon, has created a 3D printing process for house building, able to construct a new home for $4000 in 24 hours, in particular for refugees or disaster relief.
• LanzaTech, a Canadian renewable energy company created by Sean Simpson, captures carbon from the atmosphere, then converts it into clean energy.
• Selina, a Panama-based travel company for digital nomads, has created 47 beautiful vacation locations around the world, combining voluntary work with travel.

In today’s world, business can aim for a net-zero impact through a more circular economic model, but they also have the potential to do more – to create a net-positive impact.

“Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth… these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women’s empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all” says Ban Ki-Moon.

We need to shift our minds from paradox to possibility – aligning short and long-terms, purpose and profit, humanity and technology, creating more from less, resource and replenishment, accessibility and exclusivity, equality and wealth.

Now is the time for a new kind of capitalism, seizing the opportunities of disruption and change, harnessing the power of business to create enlightened progress. Now is the time for business leaders to find a new code for business success.

• Explore more in my forthcoming book … Business Recoded: Have the courage to create a better world
• Get a free copy of my previous book … People Planet Profit … on sustainable innovation 

Spider Silk

There are only 31 types of fibre in the world, the last developed in the Second World War. Indeed 60% of the world’s textiles are made from polyester, a carbon-based material that is not biodegradable.

Spider silk has long been the Holy Grail of material innovation. It’s strong, biodegradable, and it can be used in everything from cosmetics to clothes. Many have attempted to grow the material in labs, but only a few companies have succeeded.

Dan Widmeier of Bolt Threads uses genetically modified yeast, sugar, water and salt, to develop a closed-loop process to bio-engineer a new protein fibre mimicking the structure of spider silk. It requires neither the polluting chemicals of petroleum-derived materials nor the land, water and pesticides of conventionally farmed fibres.

• Case study: Bolt Threads. Synthetic spider silk for a better luxury world

Sizzling Burgers

Biochemist Pat Brown wanted to create the world’s best burger. But he also wants to eliminate animal-sourced meat from our food chain, given its huge damage to our environment, from the destruction of rainforests to the emission of carbon.

Brown realised that the challenge was not to persuade vegetarians, but meat eaters. And they loved the sizzle, smell and taste of real meat. He created Impossible Foods, and identified methods and ingredients to naturally recreate everything – the sights, sounds, aromas, textures and flavours. The result? This impossibly delicious game changer of a burger.

“Because we use 0% cows, the Impossible Burger uses a fraction of the Earth’s natural resources. Compared to cows, the Impossible Burger uses 95% less land, 74% less water, and creates 87% less greenhouse gas emissions. And it’s 100% free of hormones, antibiotics, and artificial ingredients.”

• Book extract:The Leadership Code of Patrick Brown, founder of Impossible Foods
• Case study: Impossible Foods: Can a burger save the planet?

Here are 30 facts about sustainability:

• The term sustainability has its most known roots in the 1987 Brundtland Report which officially defined sustainable development for the first time.
• In 2016 many world leaders adopted the United Nation’s 17 global goals/Sustainable Development Goals to improve life all around the world and preserve the earth’s resources and fight climate change.
• The concept of circular economy looks beyond societies’ current take-make-dispose model to create a more restorative economy which designs out waste, keeps products and materials in use for as long as possible and regenerates natural systems.
• Climate change is defined as “a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity, that alters the composition of the global atmosphere, and that is in addition to natural climate variability over a comparable time period.”
• China is the world’s top polluter emitting 10,357 metric tons of carbon dioxide, followed by the United States, India, Russia and Japan.
• Mpumalanga province in South Africa has the highest levels of air pollution in the world, in terms of nitrogen dioxide levels, due to a high concentration of coal power plants.
• Human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide need to fall 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach net-zero around 2050 to limit climate change catastrophe.
• Energy is the dominant contributor to climate change, accounting for around 60% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
• If people worldwide switched to energy efficient light bulbs the world would save 105 billion euros annually.
• Lighting accounts for 15% of global electricity use. Switching to LEDs will use 90% less energy and last far longer than with the use of incandescent lights.
• 70% of the world is covered by water, yet only 2.5% of it is fresh and only 1% of it is easily accessible for human use.
• The right to safe drinking water was first recognized by the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council as part of binding international law in 2010.
• Water use has grown at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century.
• The use of water efficient fittings and fixtures has the ability to cut water use in homes by 45%.
• If the entire world ate like the average American, there would not be enough water in the world to sustain the global population.
• Plant-rich diets reduce emissions and tend to be healthier, leading to lower rates of chronic disease.
• Agricultural Emissions could be reduced by as much as 70% by adopting a vegan diet and 63% by adopting a vegetarian diet.
• Nearly half of the solid waste produced globally is organic or biodegradable.
• When organic matter is landfilled it decomposes and produces gas methane which is up to 34 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a century, thus contributing to climate change.
• When organic matter is composted, organic matter is converted into stable soil carbon, “while retaining water and nutrients of the original waste matter.” This results in carbon sequestration and the production of a high quality fertilizer.
• Recycling one ton of paper saves 2584l of oil, 26498l of water and 2.5 cubic meters of landfill space.
• Germany has the best recycling rate in the world followed by Austria, South Korea and Wales.
• Recycled paper produces about 25% fewer total emissions than conventional paper.
• Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees.
• The process of Aforestation (creating new forests where there were none) creates a carbon sink. This draws in and holds on to carbon and distributes it into the soil.
• The production of plastic is largely reliant on fossil hydrocarbons, which are non-renewable resources which contribute to climate change.
• Plastic bags and Styrofoam containers can take up to thousands of years to decompose leading to marine animal death and the contamination of soil and water.
• The most common finds during international coastal cleanups are cigarette butts, plastic beverage bottles, plastic bottle caps, food wrappers, plastic grocery bags, plastic lids, straws and stirrers, glass beverage bottles, other kinds of plastic bags, and foam take-away containers.
• 36 million people live in modern slavery today, many of who are working in the supply chains of Western brands such as that of the fast fashion industry.
• The world’s indigenous population makes up just 5% of the global population yet protects 80% of global biodiversity.

• 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: Positive Luxury. The butterfly mark you can trust
• 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

In an exclusive extract from my forthcoming book Business Recoded, meet one of the most inspiring business leaders, shaking up today’s world. He embraces the opportunities of relentless change, the power of disruptive technologies, and the courage to create a better future in his own vision. In the book, I explore the stories of many of the world’s most fascinating leaders right now, and develop 49 codes that help you redefine the future of your business, and yourself.

The Leadership Code of Piyush Gupta

Piyush Gupta leads DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia, and widely recognised as the world’s most innovative bank.

As a CEO, he has a relatively unorthodox background, having grown up in the technology and operations parts of banking. During his 27-year Citi banking career, he did 22 jobs in multiple countries, including a one-year stint as a tech entrepreneur leading his own start-up. He built a very broad-based understanding of commercial banking, how people work together, and how digital can enhance it.

He joined DBS in 2009. At the time, the bank, which was founded in 1968 by the government as the Development Bank of Singapore to help fund the young city-state’s industrial development, was inefficient and bureaucratic, running on outdated technology. “Damn bloody slow” some called it.

Like many banks, DBS was defined by complex products, drab locations, and long queues. Gupta went to branchesincognito to speak to customers, to see for himself the cause of their dismay. He realised that the bank had unwittingly made itself difficult to do business with, creating safeguards on people’s money that also made it difficult to access. Managing the bank was not easy either. No central data was available to show which of the bank’s branches were profitable and which were not.

Gupta spent time looking at other banks, but also looking at tech companies like Alibaba and Tencent who were moving rapidly into banking. He believed that such companies were about to redefine banking in substantially new ways – redefining the whole concept of financial services, not just creating a more digital approach. He decided that DBS needed to have a tech company mentality, with all the agility and inventiveness that would imply. “Banks are yesterday’s story” he told the Financial Times.

Gupta started by focusing on the customer experience, and then having addressed the basic culture and processes, on innovation, specifically embracing technology. His approach was driven by employee “hackathons” to spur collaborative thinking and diverse ideas. Rather than relying upon industry-proven solutions, DBS looked outside for new ideas and solutions, by for example taking a stake in Kasisto, a banking chatbot and AI start-up. DBS also become the first bank in the world to develop a methodology for measuring digital value creation, which shows the impact of digitisation on earnings.

DBS seeks to deliver a new kind of banking experience that is so simple, seamless and invisible, that customers have more time to spend on the things they care about. “If we just tried to apply technology to the existing banking model, we would just end up being an efficient bank” he says, which he sees as ok, but not exactly ambitious. What he really wanted to do was transform the concept of banking, to make people’s lives better.

The bank’s slogan “live more, bank less” has a double meaning. “Bank less” meant saving time, by making banking fast and easy. “Live more” meant enabling people to do more, by embedding banking and payments into everyday life, whether that be helping small businesses to access suppliers at preferential rates, or embedding DBS into a real estate company’s system, to give you an immediate mortgage quote while viewing a new home.

Gupta called his strategy “the invisible bank” where financial transactions are embedded deep within the activities of everyday life – from travel to shopping, eating to entertainment. No longer do people need to think of banking as a separate activity, it is part of everything.

DBS’s transformation is seen by many as the most radical of any incumbent bank. Internally, DBS’s 26,000 employees have embraced a start-up mindset, with a priority to develop and deliver simple and effortless services, with a focus on enabling customers to do what they do better. Digital platforms now account for 48% of DBS’ business. Innovations include Digibank, India’s first online-only bank; PayLah!, a mobile wallet app, Treasury Prism, a cash management tool for corporate finance departments; and Smart Buddy, a wearable lunch payments and savings wristband for school kids.

In 2019, DBS became the only bank ever to simultaneously hold three global titles: “Bank of the Year” by The Banker, “Best Bank in the World” by Global Finance, and “World’s Best Bank” by Euromoney.

2020 has been a phenomenal year. If you’re a tech company. But then, you could argue that in some ways every company should be a tech company, in structure and culture. And human too.

As the pandemic hit, Apple’s stock price has looked more like the Burj Khalifa, than the more expected symptoms of Covid-19. Since mid-March, it’s market value doubled in just 21 weeks to be become the world’s first $2 trillion company, having taken 42 years to reach $1 trillion. While Tim Cook and team haven’t sustained the relentless product revolutions of the Steve Jobs era, they have profited from extending its global reach, fuelled by content and applications.

Pandemic Economics

It might seem contradictory, but as society locked-down, and the global economy shrank faster than ever before, some companies have thrived like never before. Consider the growth by market value of these businesses over the first 6 months of 2020:

• Amazon: Market cap added = $401.1bn. While the online retailer struggled initially to cope with demand, it spent $4bn enhancing its distribution capacity.
• Microsoft: Market cap added = $269.9bn. The Azure cloud has dominated growth, while user numbers for Teams and Xbox both mushroomed to over 100 million.
• Tesla: Market cap added = $108.4bn. Becoming the world’s most valuable auto maker is not really the story, for Tesla is much more about energy, and specifically batteries.
• PayPal: Market cap added = $65.4bn. Online payments grew dramatically with online retail, but the real secret was PayPal’s new Venmo app for peer to peer payments.
• Pinduoduo: Market cap added = $55.2bn. 628m people used China’s #2 shopping platform with a gamified, group-based approach to ultra-low prices (see the Pinduoduo case study).

Tech companies all, but equally retail and communication, gaming and transport, energy and finance. The rapid convergence of sectors, digitalisation of interfaces, and power of networks is everywhere. 2020 has become a year of dramatic shake-upwhere the growth companies in every sector realise that the innovative application of new technologies is key to their future.

For the many of us, for who the year has not been so phenomenal, the lessons are obvious.

Post-Pandemic Consumers

It is clear that lockdown has had a profound impact on how we live. The fear of contagion, the experience of isolation, and the economic uncertainty that continues, are changing consumer behaviours for good. As new synaptic pathways take shape in our brains, new habits typically form in around 66 days.

Digital behaviours most obviously accelerated – how we work, learn, shop, socialise and play. Zoom’s daily user base rocketed from 10 million to 200 million in 3 months. Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+, achieved the same growth in 5 months that Netflix achieved in 7 years. Online shopping grew more in 8 weeks than the last 10 years, telemedicine went from 2% to 98% of all initial health appointments in 15 days.

Analysis by McKinsey illustrates how behaviours are changing around the world: 

The importance of health and wellbeing is set to endure, as we become used to low-touch experiences. At the same time, we value humanity more, caring for society, family and neighbours. As a result, our physical shopping behaviours change too. Local proximity, but self-service, less frequent visits, baskets of flour and detergent, rather than clothes and cosmetics.Sustainability became a more or less significant issue depending on safety and economics.

Nesting in our homes, we became more subdued too. Our wanderlust to travel was quashed by quarantine, as airlines and hotels have perhaps been worst affected, typically losing 90% of their business. Most people lost confidence in using public transport, so roads became more congested as we slowly ventured out, while many city centres have remained ghost towns.

Socialising, except for the initial youthful exuberance to party again, has been more moderated. Many restaurants still operate as kitchens for home delivery, fuelling the continued rise of delivery companies like Deliveroo and Just Eat, who have added groceries and medicines, in a similar way to the Asian super-apps like Grab and Meituan Dianping. And our love of small brands, like craft beers, has given way to a trust in larger, familiar brands.