In late 2019 the Business Roundtable declared the end of the Shareholder Value Era.

Heather McGowan, in her article for Forbes, articulates her belief that the pandemic has shifted us into a new age: the human capital era; and explains how we got here.

Her key points include

we have treated humans as a cost to contain rather than as the main generator of value (90% of S&P enterprise value is now generated from human capital)
we have under invested in humans halting social mobility (in 1950 you had a 90% chance of doing better than your parents, by 1980 that dropped to 50%)
racism is not only immoral, it is expensive (costing $16 trillion over the past 20 years)
income inequality depresses growth (perhaps as much as 1% of GDP), and much more.

Business education from the 1980s to late 2019 preached that business existed to return profits to shareholders and investors at all costs. Many of those “costs” were humans which was reasonable in the 1970s as most human work was in contribution to production of physical asssets.

Recent data from Aon shows that in 1975 tangible, physical assets comprised 84% of enterprise value on the S&P 500, while only 17% of that value was intangible, notably human capital.

By 2020, these categories had flipped and intangible assets comprised 90% of all value. Missing this shift not only created income inequality, it also squandered human and economic potential. While the stock market soared, our actual return on assets declined by 75% since 1965, according to research by Deloitte’s John Hagel.

Can capitalism be made to work for all of us – and to improve rather than destroy the state of the planet?

Stakeholder capitalism proposes that corporations should serve the interests of all their stakeholders, and not just shareholders. Stakeholders can include investors, owners, employees, vendors, customers, and the general public at large. The focus is on long-term value creation, not merely enhancing shareholder value.

In this set of 5 discussions, the World Economic Forum bring together experts, hosted by Peter Vanham and Natalie Pierce, to dive into some of the main problems with global capitalism and ask expert guests if there are better ways of doing things – from the way we measure economic success, to addressing crippling inequalities and climate catastrophe.

Beyond GDP: Measuring What Matters

The whole world looks at gross domestic product to gauge economic success. It’s a simple, single number that makes comparisons over time and between countries easy. But it does not reflect people’s incomes and fails to include anything that does not have an easily calculated monetary value, such as the natural environment. How can we measure our economies in a way that does not encourage environmental destruction, that gives a better indication to how real people are doing, and perhaps even looks beyond monetary wealth to include things such as personal well-being and even happiness? This episode of Stakeholder Capitalism asks, how can we go beyond GDP?

How Trade Unions Lift Worker Wages

The decline of incomes for the bottom 50% of Americans has coincided with a fall in union membership. This episode looks at how those two facts might be linked and looks to Denmark where union representation is welcomed by employers.

Planet vs. Profit: Can Growth be Green?

While the value of big tech companies has soared, what problems has that created? A lack of market competition and the impact that has on economies; data protection concerns; falling public trust. Is big tech too big, and what should be done?

Tech for Good: Promise & Peril

Stakeholder Capitalism at Work

How can the idea of ‘stakeholder capitalism’ work in the real world?

Today’s healthcare system is essentially a “sickcare” system.

While there has been huge progress on medical diagnosis and treatments, care delivery hasn’t significantly changed structurally. It’s still largely bricks and mortar where people who are sick or acutely ill come to be seen and treated by medically trained people in surgeries and hospitals.

It was designed in an era when telephones were wired, knowledge shared in books. It was never designed without the imagination of the global organisations, remote technologies and personalised data. It was never designed to deal with the huge growth of chronic disease which now represents well over 80% of all healthcare spend.

Today if someone doesn’t feel well, they may see their GP – and probably more likely a phone call in Covid times – get an appointment with a hospital specialist, have tests or scans, have those results looked at, and then receive the necessary treatment. This can take a long time.

Start with the consumer, the patient …

Take a look at other consumer industries. Start from the perspective of the patient. How can we help the patient understand the drivers that impact their chronic condition better so they can play a more active role in managing it. This could be getting involved in health rather than just sickness, supporting and coaching them in relation to their sleeping, eating, smoking, drinking and exercise as well as all aspects of managing their condition properly, such as adherence to medication. The aim is to proactively keep them well rather than react when they become ill.

It’s not just telling them what to do (most people who smoke know that it’s bad for their health), it’s truly engaging them, providing them with smart technology so they can closely monitor themselves. They can have devices that will constantly measure the likes of their heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, weight or activity levels.

This data can be streamed from their device or smartphone app, and processed through algorithms that show how their health is evolving. Patterns created can show that intervention is needed or this person might, for example, be at risk of a stroke or a fall. Both the person and remote-care team can monitor their health. Patients can be engaged through social networks, competitions and games. “Care Hubs” can act like a flight control centre, looking at the health of their population, based on a combination of streaming information from the patients and the health records they keep. These hubs could help patients whose data indicates the need of support, either by a two-way video consultation or a visit.

We’re essentially talking about a 24-hour connection between the patient and those monitoring them. Chronic patients have to live with the condition 24/7, so the care should reflect that.

Imagine a different future …

Imagine a future where a GP uses their tablet ultrasound to make a movie of a patient’s beating heart. When irregularities are noted, the GP shares this immediately with a cardiologist to diagnose the patient and set up a care plan there and then. There’s no need to make an appointment in weeks or months – the issue can be dealt with in real-time. This is what we have become accustomed to when booking flights, doing our finances or shopping online.

It’s a world where someone with a chronic condition has all their vital data streamed to their care team who will probably know before the patient does that someone needs to step in to provide support or treatment.

Patients will still need specialists with expert knowledge, but the patient and specialist don’t need to be in the same space at the same time. A network of connected care means several experts can look at the case simultaneously. This would enable the early diagnosis of health issues by constant monitoring before they become more serious.

This will be normal practice within 10 years. The idea of maintaining people’s wellbeing rather than reacting to an episode makes sense. It will be hard changing a system that is hard-wired to be more reactive, but that’s how it will be in the future.

The Economist summarises the emerging world like this:

Strategy& says that in the past years, healthcare systems and the pharmaceutical industry have undergone tremendous changes given technological, regulatory and socioeconomic disruptions. Covid-19 has further intensified and catalyzed these changes in healthcare systems and healthcare delivery. Among others, regulators paved the way for more dynamic and faster decision-making, approved novel technologies including digital health solutions and created new reimbursement pathways. In parallel, medical and biological research has made breakthroughs with emerging technologies including in-silico protein folding prediction, novel cell therapies and other treatment platforms. With those trends materializing, borders between industries continue to blur. This convergence of healthcare, technology and retail and consumer industries will lead to what we call the LIFEcare system, characterized by a convergence of wellcare and disease care systems.

It’s 2021 global Future of Health study suggest that this acceleration has only just begun. Over the next decade, the transformation of healthcare will shape the road to success for Pharma companies in an unprecedented way. 75% of healthcare executives agree that such systems will be widespread by 2035, especially in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, oncology and neurology. This adjustment will involve significant disruption of the value chain. At the same time, we forecast that the creation of new opportunities in areas such as preventative care and personalized nutrition will lead to a two to threefold increase in the global wellcare, creating a total value pool of 2.8 to 3.5 trillion USD by 2030.

Publicis Health, with illustrations by Visual Capitalist consider “6 Forces Transforming the Future of Healthcare”

Disruptive technologies are advancing healthcare at an extraordinary pace. By 2020, there will be 50 billion devices connected to the internet, and many of these devices will be tracking the health data of individuals. This will empower consumers in an exciting way, but it will also fundamentally shift how healthcare companies work and interact with their customers.

The smartphone boom has changed the consumer experience in practically every industry, and it is now cascading into the healthcare market:

Commoditized: 76% of consumers expect pharma/healthcare providers to provide services that help them manage their health.
Connected: 59% of consumers expect their healthcare customer services to be as good as Amazon’s.
Quantified: 76% of consumers expect pharma/healthcare to understand their individual needs.

In other words, the traditional healthcare model no longer aligns with the consumer mindset.

The Six Forces

Publicis Health identified six transformative forces that healthcare companies must address to gain a competitive edge:

1. Data Activation
Data reveals truths. A robust data strategy fundamentally shifts how company manages their brands.

2. Workflow-Empowered Solutions
The patient experience will be at the center of a seamlessly connected workflow of information, with integrated electronic health records (EHR) that document more than just visits to the doctor. The proliferation of EHR opens new opportunities to service healthcare professionals and patients.

3. Content Strategy
Consumers want their healthcare information and insights delivered in a personalized, engaging, accessible, and dynamic format.

4. Intelligence Services
Consumers want the healthcare industry to “find, know, and help” them, using past behaviors and AI to anticipate their current and future needs.

5. Clinical Trial Recruitment
Finding the right patients remains a major challenge for pharma. New technologies and patient engagement strategies are greatly reducing the time and inefficiencies of clinical trial recruitment.

6. Sales Model Transformation
As AI takes hold and directs more automated Rx decisions, it will be more than just about relationships but also about relevant skills to make use of the new tools, while preserving the need for human touch.

How do you get people to say yes to a new idea or innovation?

In their new book The Human Element Loran Nordgren and David Schonthal, both from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, explore the concepts of fuel and friction.

The deep assumption of most marketers, innovators, executives, activists, or anyone else in the business of creating change, is that the way to sell an idea is to focus on heightening its appeal.

We instinctively believe that if we add enough value, people will say “yes”.

This reflex tends to lead us down a path of adding features to an idea and amplifying its benefits in order to get others on board. These activities and strategies designed to generate demand is a set of tactics called collectively as “fuel”.

But by focusing on fuel to enhance attraction, innovators often neglect the other half of the equation – the “frictions” that work against the desired behaviour we seek in others. Frictions are the psychological forces that oppose and undermine change. Though rarely considered, identifying, understanding and overcoming these frictions is often the key to successfully achieving our innovation goals.

In summary, the four frictions that operate against new ideas and innovation:

By examining these frictions, readers will come to understand the unexpected reasons why the ideas and initiatives they are most passionate about get rejected. Readers also will learn how to identify and disarm these forces of resistance and will discover how the very frictions that hold us back can be transformed into important catalysts for change.

Diagnostic tool: Where’s the friction in your idea?

Mapping tool: Your friction report

2022 will be a year of dramatic innovation.

Schumpeter, the Austrian economist, articulated the nature of economic cycles, that every downturn is followed by a new era-defining upturn. Changing attitudes and entrepreneurial mindsets drive industrial revolutions and accelerated innovation. 57% of the Fortune 500 were founded during a downturn, 92% of patents are filed during or just after a downturn.

2022 is one of these moments. The shake-up of a global pandemic has led to a shake-out of markets, where consumers drive new agendas, businesses embrace new models, and new leaders rise up. This is the year when the global economy will surpass $100 trillion for the first time, growing by 4% globally, an average that hides dramatic and dynamic changes.

With more change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years, looking ahead is not easy, in a world where stable and incremental progress have given way to complexity and uncertainty. Yet a future perspective is what every stakeholder seeks – a way forwards, new opportunities to grow, a better world. We need leaders to see and shape this future, and help us get there.

So what’s your future potential?

Now, more than ever, your potential as a business, and a leader, is defined by how you see your future – your boldness of vision, diversity of perspective, thoughtfulness of choice. How will you make sense of change? How will we seize the new opportunities before others? How do we connect to drive innovation and transformation? And how will progress deliver purposeful impact and profitable growth?

Here are a few clues to succeeding in the year ahead:

January 2022: Accelerating change

Probable: GM’s Mary Barra kicks off the Consumer Electronic Show 2022 in Las Vegas, as a mobility revolution gathers speed. Her multi-billion dollar investment in Cruise autonomous driving technology has transformed GM, as it seeks to compete in a new world order. This year’s CES also includes the Indy Autonomous Challenges for EV racing cars with a $1 million prize.
Possible: Tesla’s share price falls dramatically. While Musk says Tesla is an energy rather than mobility company, there are now over 120 brands competing in the EV market. Investors look to others, including the world’s largest, BYD, and fastest growing, Nio. At the start of 2022, Peter Rawlinson’s Lucid had a market capitalisation per car sold of $5 million, Tesla $2.3m, and Rivian $1.2m; compared to Toyota $120k and BMW $30k.

February 2022: Chinese revolution

Probable: China introduces its new digital yuan, one of the first sovereign digital currencies, just in time for the Chinese New Year, when “lai see” red envelopes traditionally change hands. The e-CNY wallet app will be showcased during this month’s Winter Olympics being held in Beijing (the first city to host summer and winter games), but faces stiff competition from Alipay and WeChat.
Possible: Good Doctor, already the world’s largest digital healthcare platform, developed by China’s Ping An, the world’s second largest insurance business, enters global markets offering low price healthcare via videophone and local kiosks. Huge advances are being seen in every aspect of medicine, from remote diagnostics to cancer therapies based on mRNA techniques that advanced as Covid vaccines.

March 2022: Resource constraints

Probable: Germany closes its last nuclear power stations, haunted by safety concerns, leaving new chancellor Olaf Scholtz and his green colleagues increasingly dependent on natural gas from Russia. Meanwhile France commits to build a new generation of nuclear plants, recognising it as one of the cleanest and most reliable sources of energy, but considering a rebrand as “elemental energy”.
Possible: Energy prices continue to soar across the world, as does the price and demand for other raw materials, most spectacularly lithium and copper for electric vehicle batteries, largely sourced from Australia and Latin America. Energy drives sharp rises in logistics and manufacturing costs, exasperated by continued supply chain chaos, leading to sharp rises in everything from food to vehicles, and significant inflation.

April 2022: Metaverse hype

Probable: Gaming platforms like Roblox have become the new shopping malls, but also the space where GenZ connects. BTS recently held the world’s largest music concert in Fortnite’s “Party Space“, Gucci launched pop-up stores with limited edition real products, Nikeland hosts virtual sporting events, and Tinder this month launches “Single Town” as a new meta dating space, where avatars dress their best and meet without consequence.
Possible: Facebook‘s transformation into Meta Platforms looks increasingly faddish. Maybe Zuckerberg forgot that his reimagined internet as an immersive world requires a VR headset in most cases. Apple sold 40 times more AirPods than Meta sold Oculus headsets in 2021, and has a much richer metaverse-potential with the evolution of its AppStore, plus the imminent launch of its intelligent eyewear, iGlass.

May 2022: Digital normality

Probable: The ABBA Voyage global tour kicks off in a specially-made venue at London’s Olympic Park, with the Swedish pop group appearing as holograms, selling out physical venues. Tickets start at $100, to be part of an entirely virtual experience, created by George Lucas‘ Industrial Light and Magic. 70 year olds Anni-frida and Agnitha, Benny and Bjorn, must be sitting at home in the their (now separate) saunas laughing.
Possible: The phrase “digital“ is seen as increasingly redundant. 85% of consumers now believe they “live in a digital world”, and don’t see a divide between physical and virtual. “Hybrid” or “liquid” or “omni”-experiences are now their expectations everywhere. At the same time, the phrase “digital transformation” in business is equally meaningless. The challenge is not to automate towards sameness, but to transform to better.

June 2022: Exponential markets

Probable: India is now the world’s most populous nation with 1.5 billion citizens. While its fast growth rival, China, has often been seen as a decade ahead in development, India is rising faster. As the Indian tech diaspora – led by Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai and Parag Agrawal – set global standards, local businesses like Mukesh Ambani’s super-app Jio Platforms are transforming Indian markets and daily lives.
Possible: Stripe, the payment business founded by two Irish brothers, Patrick and John Collison, is the world’s biggest IPO of 2022. At the start of the year it was valued at $95 billion, and now worth over $200 billion. It builds APIs that web developers can use to integrate payment processing into their websites and mobile applications. Other IPOs this year include Brewdog, Instacart, and Starlink.

July 2022: Changing lifestyles

Probable: Le Tour de France adds a new format this year with “Le Tour Femmes“, an 8-stage cycle race for women, sponsored by Zwift, the online cycling platform which created virtual tours during the pandemic, and continues to enable anyone to participate in the elite race from their homes. Similarly La Liga, Spain’s premier soccer league, is partnering with Dapper Labs to enable anyone to participate in its games.
Possible: As the Covid-19 pandemic finally subsides, 10% of companies continue with a remote working approach, 20% have demanded all employees return to offices, while 70% have continued to operate with a hybrid model. Those demanding a physical return have seen the largest voluntary exits, as companies have grappled with new EVPs to attract talent, changing lifestyle aspirations, particularly of younger people.

August 2022: African entrepreneurs

Probable: Kenya‘s Konza Technology City is just one of the vibrant start-up hubs across Africa’s “silicon savannah“. In the same way M-Pesa ingeniously transformed the way people transfer money, other simple or frugal innovations by African entrepreneurs are disrupting agriculture, education, healthcare, and more. Aerobotics to Flutterwave, Sokowatch and Sunculture are great examples.
Possible: Lego‘s 90th anniversary is marked with fans voting for a return of its basic building blocks, which were a particular hit with adults during months of pandemic lockdown. “Creative play“, as the brand’s name translates, has taken on a bigger meaning, with Lego seeking to build creative spaces and design schools, encouraging human collaboration in an increasingly remote and digital world.

September 2022: Space-age living

Probable: China launches its new Tiangong (translated as “Heavenly Palace”) space station, with a warning to Elon Musk and others to take more responsibility for Earth’s orbit which is increasingly crowded with mini satellites. It will be continuously manned by 3 astronauts with a focus on scientific research, and considerably smaller than the ISS which was launched in 1998 and will be retired in 2024.
Possible: Lunar Gateway is another new space station launched by NASA in partnership with Canada, Europe and Japan. It will orbit the moon, therefore the first in deep space, and focus on creating a permanent human base on the moon’s surface, which in itself is seen as a key staging post in eventual travel to Mars and beyond. SpaceX, with its $2.9 billion NASA contract, will provide transportation on its new Starship rocket.

October 2022: Sustainable impacts

Probable: Brazil’s elections are a moment of hope for the Amazon. The country is home to 60% of the vast rainforest which has gone from carbon sink to a carbon source over the last decade. Deforestation has soared by over 40% since populist president Bolsonaro took office in 2019 and removed restrictions on illegal logging, mining, cattle-ranching and land-grabbing.
Possible: As the climate crisis becomes more acute, and sustainability shifts from compliance to core business, there is a recognition that collaborative actions are key to driving real change – public-private partnerships and cross-industry collaborations. The Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance, the Clean Energy Demand Initiative, and the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance are examples.

November 2022: Arabic ambitions

Probable: Jeddah Tower becomes the world’s tallest building, surpassing regional rival UAE’s Burj Khalifa, and a physical manifestation of KSA’s Vision 2030 to move away from a dependence on oil, and towards a modern state. Neom, its futuristic city being constructed near the Red Sea, is another example. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi unveils the world’s largest solar power plant with 3.2 million solar panels.
Possible: FIFA’s World Cup kicks off in Qatar this month, the first time the soccer tournament has been held in an Arab nation, a Muslim nation, or a winter month. $220 billion has been lavished on facilities and infrastructure, seen as a transformational catalyst for the nation and its reputation on the world stage. 32 countries will compete for the trophy, with England beating Brazil 3:1 in the final.

December 2022: Visionary leaders

Probable: CEO tenure is at a record low, an average of 6.9 years for the world’s largest companies, but with 30% of leaders lasting less than 2 years. Being a CEO used to be easy, managing the status quo, to maximise profit. Today, it is a more complex challenge – with dynamic markets, diverse stakeholders, unclear choices, and high expectations. In my new book, future orientation is now their most critical attribute, driven by curiosity and courage.
Possible: Last year, the “great resignation” stole business headlines as employees, galvanised by Covid-induced remote working, left their jobs in search of more balanced lifestyles. Now, the “great restructuring” is underway as organisations reimagine workspaces and structures, employment contracts and practices. The 4 day week, working from anywhere, portfolio of jobs, fusing work and life, is becoming the normal.

In a world of such rapid change, what will you do?

Seeking to progress by doing what you’ve always done is unlikely to succeed. Insights and ideas fuel new thinking, new actions that move us forwards. We need leaders who have the courage and vision to create better futures, for themselves, for their organisations and our world.

2022 is a time of huge change, and huge opportunity.

What will you do in 2022?

Here are some of the best trend reports for 2022:

IBM “Building persistence, resilience and purpose“
Instagram “Trend Report 2022“
Fjord “Trends 2022: The new fabric of life“
Foresight Factory: Trending 2022
Salzman “22 for 2022: Measuring up what we thought we knew”
Gartner “12 Strategic Technology Trends for 2022“
GWI “Consumer Trends 2022: Pursuit of purpose”
Mintel “Global Consumer Trends 2022: Ethical control”
WGSN “Future Consumer 2022: Dawn of the connected decade”
Deloitte “Tech Trends 2022: Engineer your tech forward future“
Deloitte Global Marketing Trends 2022: Thriving through customer centricity“

Financial Times‘ things to look out for:

Energy … The theme in the energy world in 2021 was the recovery in demand for oil, natural gas and electricity from lows earlier in the pandemic. In 2022, we will find out if supplies can keep up with now surging demand, or whether more price inflation is inevitable.
Pharma … Next year will be a new test for the pharmaceutical industry’s favourite four-letter acronym: mRNA, which stands for messenger ribonucleic acid. The Covid-19 vaccines proved the mRNA pioneers right: it is a rapid adaptable technology that can create highly effective vaccines.
Tech … Web3 is a technology in search of a breakout application. The name applies to a collection of blockchain-based technologies that support a more decentralised version of the web — one where users, rather than giant tech companies, would be in control.
Travel … Travel will be more expensive. Many airlines, particularly low-cost carriers, have been keeping fares low to stimulate demand during the pandemic. But when people can finally travel easily again, executives will want to repair battered balance sheets.
Private Equity … The return of the private equity initial public offering. A handful of US behemoths — Blackstone, KKR, Carlyle, Apollo and Ares — went public between 2007 and 2014 but received a lukewarm reception from investors in the early years.

IBM‘s business trends focus on 5 points

Digital transformation has become a way of life
Human capital is precious and scarce
Sustainability and transparency are urgent priorities
Tech adoption should reshape business operations
Trust and security underpin sustained innovation

Gartner‘s 12 Strategic Technology Trends include

Data fabric provides a flexible, resilient integration of data sources across platforms and business users, making data available everywhere it’s needed regardless where the data lives. Data fabric can use analytics to learn and actively recommend where data should be used and changed. This can reduce data management efforts by up to 70%.
Cybersecurity mesh is a flexible, composable architecture that integrates widely distributed and disparate security services. Cybersecurity mesh enables best-of-breed, stand-alone security solutions to work together to improve overall security while moving control points closer to the assets they’re designed to protect. It can quickly and reliably verify identity, context and policy adherence across cloud and non-cloud environments.
Privacy-enhancing computation secures the processing of personal data in untrusted environments — which is increasingly critical due to evolving privacy and data protection laws as well as growing consumer concerns. Privacy-enhancing computation utilizes a variety of privacy-protection techniques to allow value to be extracted from data while still meeting compliance requirements.
Cloud-native platforms are technologies that allow you to build new application architectures that are resilient, elastic and agile — enabling you to respond to rapid digital change. Cloud-native platforms improve on the traditional lift-and-shift approach to cloud, which fails to take advantage of the benefits of cloud and adds complexity to maintenance.
Composable applications are built from business-centric modular components. Composable applications make it easier to use and reuse code, accelerating the time to market for new software solutions and releasing enterprise value.
Decision intelligence is a practical approach to improve organizational decision making. It models each decision as a set of processes, using intelligence and analytics to inform, learn from and refine decisions. Decision intelligence can support and enhance human decision making and, potentially, automate it through the use of augmented analytics, simulations and AI.
Hyperautomation is a disciplined, business-driven approach to rapidly identify, vet and automate as many business and IT processes as possible. Hyperautomation enables scalability, remote operation and business model disruption.
AI engineering automates updates to data, models and applications to streamline AI delivery. Combined with strong AI governance, AI engineering will operationalize the delivery of AI to ensure its ongoing business value.
Distributed enterprises reflect a digital-first, remote-first business model to improve employee experiences, digitalize consumer and partner touchpoints, and build out product experiences. Distributed enterprises better serve the needs of remote employees and consumers, who are fueling demand for virtual services and hybrid workplaces.
Total experience is a business strategy that integrates employee experience, customer experience, user experience and multiexperience across multiple touchpoints to accelerate growth. Total experience can drive greater customer and employee confidence, satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy through holistic management of stakeholder experiences.
Autonomic systems are self-managed physical or software systems that learn from their environments and dynamically modify their own algorithms in real time to optimize their behavior in complex ecosystems. Autonomic systems create an agile set of technology capabilities that are able to support new requirements and situations, optimize performance and defend against attacks without human intervention.
Generative AI learns about artifacts from data, and generates innovative new creations that are similar to the original but doesn’t repeat it. Generative AI has the potential to create new forms of creative content, such as video, and accelerate R&D cycles in fields ranging from medicine to product creation.

Fjord Trends, now part of Accenture, focuses on consumer behaviour change

It builds on the rapid shift in attitudes and behaviours over two years of pandemic as people have initially been forced, and then wanted, to explore new directions. This has forced everyone to reevaluate all types of relationships – with friends and family, work and leisure, brands and institutions, society and environment.

We to Me … “We’ve seen a fundamental shift in how people think about their sense of agency over their lives, supported by the continued rise of the side-hustle economy. Technology has made it less risky to seek out new income streams—and many are going for it. This rise of a “me over we” mentality has profound implications for organizations in how they lead their employees, and how they nurture relationships with their consumer-creators.”

How will your brand and business address the desire for consumers and employees to be treated as individuals, differently and personally?
Individualism and collectivism can co-exist. You can work in a business, and for yourself. Enhance the value of teams and communities, co-creation and sharing.

Less is More … “Scarcity of raw materials, a shortage of workers, strained distribution channels and even new austerity laws are shaking abundance thinking built on availability, convenience, and speed. For those who have taken abundance for granted, this is a powerful demonstration of what a future with supply shortages would feel like. Now is the time to learn from this—by designing for scarcity thinking and making business nature positive.”

Look beyond our obsession with more – with abundance, with materialism, with size. Regeneration becomes craft, more human, more responsible, more valued.
Decouple innovation from newness, decouple less from loss, decouple growth from materialism. These are old logics. We can still innovate and grow.

Limits to Limitless … “The metaverse has burst onto the scene, showing promise that it can expand beyond its gaming roots. It’s evolving digital culture and offering people and brands a new place to interact, create, consume and earn. We have more questions than answers, but major headlines are making us feel like we’re on the brink of the next frontier, that promises almost infinite possibilities to create new value.”

Don’t be swallowed up by gamer enthusiasm and agency hype, this is still an emergent space, where Apple hasn’t even shown its hand yet.
Approach the metaverse with curiosity and playfulness, but also with integrity and ethics, as we find ways to operate and build social trust.

Acceptance to Expectation … “As humankind evolved, the period of magical thinking gave way to one of science. Our era is one of questions—the ability to ask questions and get rapid answers is so normal, it’s an expectation. For brands, the range of customer questions and the number of channels for asking them is growing constantly. Defining how to answer them is a major design challenge. Those who do it well will earn trust and competitive edge.”

Information becomes key to brands, to consumer choice and competitive advantage. From tech specs to price comparison, ability to use and exploit.
How do consumers seek information? Who do they trust? Where do they go? Personal recommendation beats corporate information, crowd knowledge over single sources.

Service to Care … “Care has moved center stage, reminding us of the importance of kindness and compassion. The many different aspects of care, the challenges of caring, and the cost and role of carers have become more visible and more widely discussed. This is creating opportunities and challenges for all employers and brands— health and non-health. How companies design for all aspects of care will likely set them apart, and be a key component for future success.”

Empathetic design, multi sensory and intuitive, matters more than ever in a world of speed and complexity. Ability and cognition are different in everyone.
Health, wellness and care are no longer the domain of health businesses, but of every type of business that engages with human beings.

2021 was a year of acceleration.

While Covid-19 raged across the globe, and our physical lives were stagnated, it was a year of changing attitudes and agendas, and of rapid adoption of new technologies.

In the very first week of 2021, the first Covid vaccinations were given to the public, having taken only 5% of the time to develop compared to previous vaccines; supporters of Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol while Twitter banned the defeated president for “incitement of insurrection”; North Korea’s Kim Jong-un admitted that his 5-year plan had failed; and Storm Filomena hit Spain with a year of snow falling on Madrid in 24 hours.

The year continued at pace.

Stock markets surged, globally delivering a third year of double-digit growth. US tech companies raced ahead, Apple nudging $3 trillion in market cap, while $1 trillion Tesla dominated the EV market, which is maturing rapidly. Climate change joined Covid as the world’s big agendas, the metaverse became as hyped as the space race to Mars, Alphafold transformed bio science and Squid Game brought Korean mayhem to small screens.

Here are my personal anecdotes of a year when “more change in the next 10 years than the last 250 years” seemed entirely reasonable:

January 2021: A glimmer of hope

22 year old poet Amanda Gorman wowed the world with “The Hill We Climb” as Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th US president, and Kamala Harris the first female VP. Amidst all the recent turmoil, a glimmer of hope.
Citigroup announced Jane Fraser, a 54 year old from Scotland, as its new CEO, and the “First Lady of Wall Street”. In her first email to staff she called for them to seek 3Cs in a changing world – curiosity, creativity and courage.
Business Recoded, my new book, was published together with an inspiring 5 module program for business leaders “ready to step up, ready to create a better world”. It has since been shortlisted for CMI Business Book of the Year.
Working with business leaders from Electrolux across Asia Pacific, I led a program that explored rapidly changing business models – from Pinduoduo to PingAn – fuelled by a creative fusion of GenZ, digitalisation and sustainability.

February 2021: Explorers to Mars

GameStop, the troubled US retailer, saw its shares soar by 1,700% as millions of small investors, encouraged by social platform Reddit, put a “short squeeze” on Wall Street. Yet another example of the crowd, and of social influence.
NASA landed its space vehicle Perseverence Rover on the surface of Mars, while China and the UAE both joined in with their own missions to the red planet. As Elon Musk puts the final touches to his SpaceX Starship, colonising Mars doesn’t seem so crazy.
31-years old Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of the “female first” dating app Bumble, became the youngest woman to take a tech unicorn public, and in doing so become the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.
Financial services is a platform for so much more, was my challenge to Sompo Group, Japan’s largest insurance company, as they defined a new vision to create “a Disneyland of consumer services” that reduced risks and enhanced revenues.

March 2021: The crazy world of NFTs

Impossible Foods’ exponential growth strategy to transform the world’s diet, led my Stanford professor Pat Brown was a highlight of my “Innovation Safari” with UAE’s Prime Minister’s Office and other leading UAE companies.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) made headlines when Mike Winkelmann, a digital artist known as Beeple, sold an NFT of his “photo montage” work for $69 million at Christie’s. NFTs are ownership certificates of digital items like jpegs and posts, secured by blockchain.
Evergiven, a 400m-long container ship, caused a global supply chain meltdown, when it got wedged across Egypt’s Suez Canal, blocking one of the world’s busiest trade route for over 6 days, demonstrating the fragility of just-in-time supplies.
Reimagining a port operator as a global supply chain enabler was the theme of my innovation program for DP World, delivered in partnership with Headspring, driving new new strategic innovation projects.

April 2021: Sustainability is the new cool

Adidas partnered with New Zealand’s Allbirds to create the world’s most sustainable running shoe, the Futurecraft Footprint. The shoe also features a carbon footprint metric, written on the outer sole, and typically 90% less than most sports shoes.
Europe’s leading soccer teams – from Chelsea and Manchester United to Inter Milan and Real Madrid – got together to form an exclusive, super-rich Super League – but were met by outrage from fans, and the plan soon collapsed.
Ravensburger is a classic German toy maker, most famous for jigsaw puzzles. I worked with them to reimagine their business in a digital world, however that is less about digital selling and gaming, and more about enabling better human experiences.
Mylo is a new leather-like material made from mushrooms by Bolt Threads. It’s already being used in a new generation of sustainable Gucci handbags, Stella McCartney couture, and Adidas’ classic Stan Smith trainer.

May 2021: Future proof your business

Apple and Epic Games, the owner of Fortnite, locked horns in a US courtroom over what Epic said was the restrictive business practices of the App Store, taking what they said were excessive cuts of the revenue, and limiting other sales. Apple won.
Engine No.1, an activist hedge fund owning 0.02% of Exxon Mobil stock, was able to mobilise other investors and remove three board members at the oil giant’s AGM, saying they weren’t driving change fast enough.
Working with Deloitte Africa, we brought together government and business leaders to take deep dive into the best innovation practices in both private and public sector – from Amazon to Tesla, to the government programs of Estonia and Singapore.
Globally, the next 10 years will see 40% growth in over 60s population, which is driving new thinking, not least in China, where the government introduced a new “three children” social policy, compared to the one child of old.

June 2021: Innovate the whole business

SPACs are the new hype of business finance, where a shell company is listed on a stock exchange in order to acquire another. Anne Wojcicki’s 23andMe, the consumer DNA business, was quick to merge with Richard Branson’s SPAC, VG Investments.
Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Company ranking is my go to list for new insights – this year headed by Pfizer and Moderna’s with their blockbuster mRNA vaccines, Shopify and SpaceX redefining their industries, Spinghill and Epic Games disrupting conventions.
Gulf Bank engaged me to help them transform their Kuwait-based business for the future, bringing together executive team and top 250 managers from across the business, to focus on digitally-enabled platforms for GenZ and entrepreneurs.
Circklo is a sustainable innovation network which I was delighted to join as advisor and coach – working with entrepreneurs and evangelists, technologists and transformers, to help solve the world’s biggest sustainability challenges through new technologies.

July 2021: Entrepreneurs and astronauts

Jeff Bezos stepped down as CEO exactly 27 years after founding Amazon, having created a business now worth $1.6 trillion, and over 1.3 million jobs. New CEO, Andy Jassy, former boss of Amazon Web Services, has big shoes to fill.
Alphabet’s Deep Mind is making its revolutionary AlphaFold freely available to everyone – the source code of every single protein in the human body, as well as for the proteins of 20 additional organisms
Virgin Galactic “won” the billionaire space race, when Richard Branson flew VSS Unity into sub-orbital space, a few weeks before Bezos flew his Blue Origin spacecraft even higher to reach the Karman Line, 100km above sea level.
Segovia, the Spanish world heritage city, was a remarkable setting for this year’s Global AMP with IE Business School. A diverse group of leaders and entrepreneurs joined me in a 13th century monastery to explore the future of business, brands and beyond.

August 2021: Code red for humanity

Microsoft became a $2 trillion business this month, doubling its value over the last two years, as CEO Satya Nadella’s revolution to AI and cloud technologies is matched by a more human, collaborative, and inclusive approach to business.
As wildfires raged in Australia and USA, a new IPCC report issued “a code red for humanity” saying that global warming of 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless rapid and deep reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions occur.
Philip Morris CEO Jacek Olczak said that he is ready “to kill the Marlboro Man” and transform the tobacco company to a “smoke free” future, with more than half of net revenues generated from smoke-free products by 2025.
Tokyo’s 2020 Olympics were a year late, and held in empty stadia, but athletes like Sydney McLaughlin and Karsten Warholm set the track alight with world records, overcoming limited preparation, and enhanced by shoe technology.

September 2021: Crazy Koreans go hypersonic

Netflix launched “Squid Game” which is a South Korean survival drama where 456 players, all of whom are in deep financial debt, risk their lives to play a series of deadly children’s games for the chance to win a $40 million prize. It is the world’s most watched TV series.
Hypersonic became a new buzzword, meaning anything that can travel faster than five times the speed of sound, after China reportedly fired two hypersonic weapons around the earth, leaving US military “stunned” by the technological advance, according to the FT.
Porto was the beautiful setting for this year’s QSP Summit, where I joined Malcolm Gladwell and other speakers to explore a rapidly changing future. It was great to be back at a physical event, however the video of my “WaveRiders: Exploring the Megatrends” keynote gained over a million online views.
Fashion is at a cross roads – from fast to slow, disposable to sustainable, sold to shared, created to upcycled. It is the world’s second most polluting industry, a symbol of progress to some but superfluous frivolity to others. FashionX was my call to action for the world of textiles and fashion, a 30 minute keynote broadcast live on Bloomberg TV.

October 2021: Welcome to the metaverse

Mark Zuckerberg chose his best avatar to introduce Meta Platforms – a new parent for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus – and a focus on building the metaverse, a digital extension of the physical world by social media, augmented and virtual reality.
Coldplay promised a future of net-zero concert tours – powered by solar power, vegetable oils, static bikes, and a battery storage system developed with BMW. It will also install a “kinetic floor” so the more fans jump, the louder the music gets.
Finland’s Posti engaged me to explore “the quantum store“, the future of retail. ePosti has already developed a series of physical hubs across the country – to send, collect and return goods – but also to give digital brands a physical presence.
From freezing Helsinki to baking Jeddah, I started working with the board of Savola, the Middle East’s leading food and retail business, to explore future growth potential in existing and new markets, to develop a future roadmap, investment portfolio and business transformation.

November 2021: Enabling teams to thrive

Amy Edmundson was crowned the world’s leading business thinker. The Harvard professor is a pioneer of psychological safety, articulated in her book “The Fearless Organisation” about creating teams and cultures where creative ideas can thrive.
Haier’s Zhang Ruimen, founder of the world’s largest home appliances business, stepped down after 36 years. He transformed a Qingdao refrigerator business into a global leader with smart factories, brand ecosystems and his “Rendanheyi” organisation model.
UN’s COP26 in Glasgow brought together 120 world leaders to address the climate crisis, seeking to reach “net zero” by 2050, and eventually agreeing to “phase down” coal, responsible for 40% of CO2 emissions.
Suntory, the leading Japanese drinks business, is inspired by “Mizu To Ikiru”, a rich philosophy of growing in harmony with people and nature. We explored how to “grow for good” by harnessing the power of consumers, brands, digital and sustainability.

December 2021: Curious, creative and courageous

Elon Musk was Time’s Person of the Year, as Tesla hit $1 trillion and dominated the global EV market, SpaceX launched 31 times with its exclusive NASA contract, and Neuralink’s computer brain interface sews chips into brains, giving him a personal $250 billion.
As the metaverse hype spread hypersonically, Fortnite launched “Party World” for music concerts and brand launches, Gucci Garden sold virtual handbags for more than real ones, H&M partnered with Animal Crossing to launch a new vegan fashion range, and Nike acquired virtual shoe designer RTFKT.
The Great Resignation saw record numbers of people (40% are said to be considering change, according to FT) voluntarily quitting their jobs in 2021 – in response to re-evaluating lifestyles and priorities during Covid-19, and a desire for more flexible working.
My year ended with a series of online events for thousands of Oracle leaders across the world – making sense of change, identifying new opportunities, and rethinking what it means to be a leader today. Curiosity and courage emerged as their key words.

Quite a year. After that crazy first week, the pace kept accelerating. Change is driven by technology – we haven’t even touched on quantum computing or Web3 – but it is more driven by changing human attitudes and behaviours – what matters most, to us, and our business, and our worlds.

Making sense of this change is not easy, shaping and leading this change is even harder.

Some of the other keynotes and consulting projects this year have sparked new thinking. Hosting the European Business Forum, I worked with Orsted and Schneider, the world top two most sustainable companies in 2021, learning from their strategies and business models. Hosting the Future Book Forum, I interviewed Andy Hunter, founder of Bookshop.org, an antidote to Amazon.

Inspiration is all around us, from local start-ups to innovators in every part of the world.

Latin America, for example, is becoming a hotbed for innovations, which I explored at Adlatina’s CMO Forum – from Brazil’s Nubank for the unbanked to Argentina’s Mercado Libre retailer, Chile’s plant-based NotCo and Colombia’s Rappi superapp. In the Middle East I found the same, in Asia I found the same. Ambition and ideas shaping a rapidly emerging future.

2021 was a year of change, but also a glimpse of the future. 2022 will be even more exciting.

The metaverse is a digital world. Hugely hyped, but also with incredible potential.

Think how we engaged with the internet from the edge, interacting with a connected world from the remoteness of our screens. Instead the metaverse enables us to jump into that world, a 3D digital space where we are immersed in a virtual reality with the help of VR and AR, interacting with real people, with human experiences, and connecting to our real world.

Digital engagement has evolved from text to image to video. And this is the next step. Instead of searching and bringing selected world’s to us, we can go out and explore, we interact with other environments and other people, we socialise and work.

Just like Second Life sought to achieve two decades ago, we build our own digital identities, in the form of an avatar – our digital self. We can project our own image, or of our choice, select desired fashion, hang out in places and with people we like, engage in experiences from music concerts to educational experiences. Maybe do what we never could or would in the real world.

Tech companies are key to shaping these new environments, although gaming companies have been key to drive the early applications. GenZ are the early adaptors, shaping how they live their lives, priorities and aspirations, influences and outlooks. Why go to a rock concert, watch a sports game, go shopping, when you can jump into any of those spaces, instantly, on demand?

Examples of “metaverse builders” include:

Meta … Facebook rebranded as Meta to “bring the metaverse to life” having acquired VR company Oculus in 2014. At its Connect 2021, it unveiled Horizon Home, your home base in the metaverse, and Quest, a collaborative workspace.
Microsoft … Mesh allows people in different locations to join collaborative holographic experiences with the tools of Teams. Users can join as a customized avatar of themselves and build immersive spaces to meet and collaborate.
Fortnite … gamers play games, but also interact with adjacent environments and events – music, sport, cafes, resorts. It recently launched “Party Worlds”, 3D spaces designed solely for players to hang out and socialise with friends.
Roblex … another gaming platform with many fashion collaborations. Vans created an interactive store where users can customize sneakers and attend virtual concerts.
Decentraland … an example of a metaverse environment beyond gaming – a plot of “real estate” similar to a New York townhouse recently sold for €2.1 million demonstrating the desirability of presence in a virtual world.
The Dematerialised … a digital marketplace where customers to purchase digital fashion assets as NFTs that they can currently port into selected games, including Sansar, VR Chat and Decentraland.

Brands that seek to engage with GenZ, immersed in their digital worlds of Fortnite or FIFA, are waking up to the need to go to these consumers, rather than hoping that they will come to them – to the old models of physical stores, malls and even internet platforms. Brands need to go to their new audiences, and engage in their new contexts.

Examples of “metaverse brands” include:

Gucci … the luxury fashion brand created Gucci Garden as a virtual representation of Gucci flagship stores, Gucci Museum in Florence, and more. Users explore current and past ranges, play games, buy virtual items, and exchange them for real.
Nike … a partnership with Roblex enabled it to create a free virtual playspace called Nikeland. the Jordan brand created Jumpman Zone with Fortnite, and Nike also acquired RTFKT, a virtual sneaker brand.
H&M … 11 pieces from its vegan Co-Exist Story collection have been recreated in virtual form to be showcased on Animal Crossing. Gamers can also virtually download the clothes at the Able Sisters shop.
Ralph Lauren … browse and try on limited-edition digital clothing in virtual Polo Shops on Roblox – interact socially, enjoy ice skating, drink hot chocolate, roast marshmallows – plus there’s a treasure hunt game, with bonus items every week.
Dyson … the tech brand has created Demo VR, advanced virtual reality technology that enables customers to test out products, such as its hairdryer and Airwrap styler, in the comfort of their own home using an Oculus headset.
NFL … American football has embraced the virtual gaming world in a big way, creating Avatar-playing versions of real life franchises, enabling users to immerse themselves in games as spectators or players, and compete globally.
BTS … the Korean super band have joined the likes of Ariana Grande, Travis Scott, and many other musicians in launching new albums, and delivering concerts, primarily online. Fortnite is becoming the new rock stadium of the world.

Of course “metaverse” is probably the most overhyped word in technology and brands right now, but it has enormous potential too. Balenciago’s CEO Cédric Charbit recently told me “the useability of the metaverse for many brands is not yet practical, at least in financial returns, but that’s making gigantic steps every day, and its potential is obvious, awesome and real.”

Business for a Better World.

That was the theme of this year’s European Business Forum, which I was delighted to host once again, and took the form of a hybrid event with live studio audience, plus a much larger remote audience joining online.

And it was fabulous to bring together the world’s #1 and #2 “most sustainable companies” according to the annual ranking by Canadian analysts Corporate Knights.

In 2020, Danish energy company Ørsted was ranked as the global sustainability leader, recognising it’s 10 year transition from a state-owned, coal-fired utility into a publicly-listed, clean energy leader in wind power. It’s an amazing journey, including an IPO, many acquisitions, and significant growth across the world. Not just a “good” story, but a fantastic growth story too. Ørsted’s CCO Martin Neubert joined us to share the transformational journey “from black to green”.

This year, in 2021, Schneider Electric is #1. The French company defines its purpose as to “empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all”. They call this “Life Is On”. Behind their why is the how – providing energy and automation digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability. And the what – addressing homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries, by combining energy technologies, real-time automation, software and services. Schneider Electric’s Michael Seremet described the business models that are driving the new global leader.

More generally we explored a wide range of businesses – from start-ups like sustainable fashion entrepreneur Malaika New York, minimising waste by making clothes in squares – to corporates in search of reinvention, like Philip Morris who are ready to kill off Marlboro Man in search of a smoke-free future. While environmental issues dominate, particularly inspired by COP26 in Glasgow taking place at the same time, they are matched by many broader social issues – like social inequality, accessible healthcare, and diversity and inclusion.

From these stories emerged a common theme. Not just about CSR and ESG, which are old words, and largely peripheral approaches, but about making sustainability a core business driver – how companies can grow better by being good – the shift from compliance to innovation, from reducing negatives to enhancing positives – and can ultimately engage consumers and amplify their positive impacts by becoming platforms for change. But this all starts with leadership – with leaders who have the courage to let go of the past, to create a better future.

You can also download my Business for a Better World: Leadership Playbook which I uniquely created for the event in partnership with a wide range of global thought leaders.

Here are some of the best moments …

Diane Holdorf, MD of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development:

“Business is our best opportunity to address the huge challenges of climate change, and more. Through better focused investment and innovation, business can create a more positive impact, and a better world.”

Lotte Hansen, CEO of HE Agenda, the sustainability think tank:

“The pressure on business to change is overwhelming – from customers who want to make better choices, from investors who see better options, and most importantly from GenZ, your future talent.”

Martin Neubert, CCO of Orsted, the world’s leading wind energy business:

“We need to transform our thinking from reducing negative impact, to adding more positive impact. Sustainability is now at the core of business, of strategic growth, of innovation.”

Malaika Haaning, founder of Malaika NY, sustainable fashion designer:

“In my small way, I am making a difference. We make fashion with zero waste. Actually, it becomes distinctive, making clothes without any cutting of fabrics. But we can do so much more. We need to change our entire industry.”

Tine Arentsen Willumsen, CEO of Above & Beyond, on diversity and inclusion:

“Diversity is a huge business opportunity – not simply to meet quotas of male and female, black and white – but to create organisations with diverse teams and perspectives – more curious, more capable, more creative.”

Mic Seremet, Head of Strategy for Schneider Electric, the world’s most sustainable company:

“The real opportunity is to reimagine business models. In the energy sector these are increasingly built around prosumers and microgrids, enabling people to consume and generate clean energy together”

Camilla Sylvest, Senior VP, Novo Nordisk, the world’s leading healthcare business for diabetes:

“We see a purpose-driven shift in how we do business. In particular to more services, where we can support people far beyond our products – educating, caring, connecting”

Mark Esposito, AI-based technologist, co-founder of Nexus Frontier Tech:

“AI is the most exciting of all the new technologies. People just haven’t yet got their heads around how AI can transform our understanding of weather, and ultimately address climate change”

Anette Rosengren, CEO Nordics, Philip Morris International, on the end of smoking:

“We are ready to kill the Marlboro Man. He defined our business, he was our cash cow, but now the world is changing fast. We need the courage to let go of our past”

Hans Axel Kristensen, founder and CEO of Plastix, a leading circular recycling business:

“Recycling used to be a dirty industry, now it is about data analytics and science. We all need to embrace circular design – rethinking how we source, produce, consume, and dispose of everything.”

Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, project director at GSK, global champion of project management:

“We need leaders who can create tomorrow. Chief Transformation Officers … Today everyone is a project manager. Say goodbye to functional roles, job descriptions. Even the COO can be automated”

Great media coverage in FINANS newspaper today …

“Sustainability at speed places completely new demands on the business leader … The next ten years will bring greater change than the world has seen for hundreds of years, predicts Peter Fisk, business professor and co-founder of the European Business Forum. Therefore, according to him, the top managers in the business world must stop spending time putting out fires and focus on the most important things …”

Copenhagen is the venue for this year’s European Business Forum.

In recent year’s we’ve brought together many of the world’s top business experts at the European Business Forum – from the strategic wisdom of Harvard’s Michael Porter to the innovative canvases of Strategyzer’s Alex Osterwalder, peaking around corners with Colombia’s Rita McGrath and crossing cultures with Insead’s Erin Meyer, fighting over the future with Innosight’s Scott Antony and IMD’s Howard Yu, and shaking up leaders with Marshall Goldsmith and Whitney Johnson.

This year it’s about businesses in action. Businesses creating a better world.

I’m absolutely delighted that we’ll be bringing together the top two “world’s most sustainable companies” according to the annual ranking by Canadian analysts Corporate Knights. In 2020, they ranked Danish energy company Ørsted as the global leader, recognising it’s 10 year transition from a state-owned, coal-fired utility into a publicly-listed, clean energy leader in wind power. It’s an amazing journey, including an IPO, many acquisitions, and significant growth across the world.

Ørsted’s Martin Neubert joins us to share the transformational journey “from black to green”.

This year, in 2021, Schneider Electric is #1. The French company defines its purpose as to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. They call this “Life Is On”. Behind this why is the how – providing energy and automation digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability. And the what – addressing homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries, by combining energy technologies, real-time automation, software and services.

Schneider Electric’s Michael Seremet will unlock the business model that has created a global leader

More generally we’ll be exploring a wide range of businesses – from start-ups like sustainable fashion entrepreneur Malaika New York, minimising waste by making clothes in squares – to corporates in search of reinvention, like Philip Morris who are willing to kill off Marlboro Man in search of a smoke-free future. While environmental issues dominate, particularly inspired by COP26, we’ll also be exploring broader issues like social inequality, accessible healthcare, and diversity and inclusion.

You can download my Business for a Better World: Leadership Playbook

Interview with Peter Fisk

Q: What, in your opinion will be the single biggest, common challenge, that the majority of business leaders face in 2022?

Accelerating their post-Covid futures … We are just at the beginning of a decade of phenomenal change, probably with more change in the next 10 years than the last 250 years, and therefore more impact than the steam engine, automobile, telephone, space travel, and digital revolutions combined.

Covid-19 disrupted the start of this “great acceleration” but then catalysed its accelerated with new agendas – more local, more human, more responsible. Green tech is everywhere – energy to automotive, food to finance – but its how we use it to build better societies, better lives, that matters.

57% of companies are founded in a downturn, 90% of patents are filed in a downturn, and companies who innovate during tough times achieve a 30% market value premium in the following upturn. Therefore now is the time to accelerate your recovery, but with new imagination and broader impacts.

Denmark has some incredible companies driving this new revolution, putting sustainable innovation and growth at the heart of strategy. Mearsk’s transformation with blockchain-enabled logistics, Orsted’s transformation to wind power, Novo Nordisk in healthcare.

But there is also a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit in Denmark – like Plastix, recycling sea waste plastics in Odense, or Malaika no-waste fashions based in New York, and of course Too Good To Go. Many of these businesses have not been afraid to leap into global markets, to make a bigger impact faster.

Q: Your work has been focused around monitoring new trends and trying to learn from the companies who have proven to be world leaders in mastering the tools necessary to benefit from these trends – what has been your primary new insight in the field of sustainable business during the latter months?

Sustainability is not simply about reducing bad things – reducing emissions, reducing waste, reducing inequality – but more importantly, about enhancing good things – better access, better health, better opportunity.

Businesses can be “platforms for good” – mobilising their huge resources, from brands and networks, to capital and relationships, employees and consumers – to make a bigger difference faster. By using sustainability as a catalyst for innovation – they create better solutions for customers, better products and services, that customers want, that generate profits, but equally have more impact for society and the environment.

Look at how Danone has transformed itself from nutrition to health, how Adidas pours huge creativity into sustainable materials and designs as well as building a “Run for the Oceans” movement to encourage social change, how Phillip Morris has declared it will be “smoke free” in coming years and is acquiring health businesses to help. And then we have fast-growth good-growth companies like Tesla, Impossible Foods, and Next Era.

New technologies also give is new ways to solve the big problems – indeed finding a big human/social problem to solve is actually one of the best starting points for a strategy. And then engaging everyone, inside and outside the organisation, in pursuit of co-created solutions to get there. That means harnessing the creativity of customers, start-ups, competitors, governments, charities, and more.

Another big shift in recent times is how sustainability is now core to strategies – forget words like CSR and ESG, where sustainability was an add-on to business as usual. Now it is core to what companies do, and how they win – its driven by customers, it drives competitive advantage, and in many cases can also deliver more significant profitability and growth – as well as the wider positive impacts.

There are plenty tools, which can sometimes seem like gimmicks – but having a real sense of purpose, for how you can make the world better, really does work. Equally using the 17 SDGs as a checklist for how you can do better. Equally measuring the carbon footprint, cradle to grave. But it starts with a passion, to make the world better in some relevant way. To fight the injustices, to solve the big problems, and to inspire people to be better.

Q: The theme of the European Business Forum is “Business for a Better World” – why have you chosen this theme at this exact point in time?

As I just described, Covid-19 was an incredibly difficult time, but also a catalyst for new thinking, and accelerated change. The shift from reducing negative impact to enhancing positive impact. The shift from sustainability as a separate agenda to “sustainable innovation” as core.

I believe that business has the power to solve our big challenges better than any government or NGO. I also think that sustainability, because in its many different forms – from climate to wellness, equality to inclusivity – can be the best source of profitable growth.

Core to this is the idea of “sustainable innovation” – creating better products and services that are also better for the world – and quite often, by looking at these broader solutions, the original products can become better, more desirable, and more profitable too. I remember when Nike created no-waste “FlyKnit” production, they also created the most comfortable shoes.

Here are some more examples

Adidas – from Parley shoes made from ocean waste, to global movements seeking to change society
Blackrock – demanding that companies put purpose before profit, if they want investment
Cemex – a purpose that seeks to build better communities rather than just deliver cement
Danone – transforming itself from food to health, with new benefits and new services
Ecovative – harnessing mycelium, the root of mushrooms, to reinvent packaging solutions
Impossible – plant-based meat on a mission to eliminate animals from the food chain
Natura – the Brazilian cosmetics giant that seeks to make the rainforests shine again
Patagonia – corporate activism personified, seeking to save the planet
Syngenta – its good growth plan is helping farmers to farm better to feed the future 9 billion
Tesla – more than a mobility company, a purpose to accelerate the shift to clean energy
Unilever – sustainable living, from Dove’s campaign for real beauty to Ben and Jerry’s Justice Remix’d

Q: Cop26 is held in Glasgow at the same time – why should the Danish business community prioritize EBF, when the world’s leaders are discussing a yet unknown, new framework for the very same issues?

EBF on 9th November comes at almost the end of two weeks of the world’s leaders exploring the big issues. We already know what they their agendas, and most points of view.

We will kick-off with a live link to Glasgow, and talk to Diane Holdorf, Managing Director of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) who will summarise the mode, debates and outcomes from Cop26, to ensure we fully build on the moment.

Actually, I believe that this year’s EBF is at the perfect moment to take the raised profile and new commitments from Cop26 and fast-forward it onto their business agendas. It is the perfect time to introduce the thinking to boardrooms, to investors, and to customers.

Q: The concept of the EBF this year is a mixture between talks and interaction amongst the participants – why this new format?

I see three big drivers of this in any organisation – Imagination, Acceleration and Transformation.

And for that reason we have designed this year’s European Business Forum, around three high-energy, high-participation “labs” in which every participant will develop their own playbook for sustainable innovation and future growth.

Each of these three labs will have four speakers – each given just a short moment to share their big ideas, like a creative catalyst – and then work with the participants in applying the ideas to their own business.

Who are these catalytic speakers, well …

In the Imagination Lab, we will explore “How can business be a platform for change?”

Diane Holdorf, brings a global perspective, representing the WBCSD, a network of over 100 of the world’s largest and most sustainability-driven companies
Lotte Hansen, CEO of HE Agenda, will give that a more local flavour, sharing new research of which sustainability issues matter most in the Nordics.
Malaika Haaning, founder of fashion brand Malaika New York will give us an exciting creative perspective from a Dane living in America.
Martin Neubert, COO of Orsted, will reflect on his company’s transformation from state to private sector, local to global, and black to green.

In the Acceleration Lab, the focus is on “What does it mean to be a sustainable innovator?”

Camilia Sylvest, EVP at Novo Nordisk, will share some of the brilliant work which they have been doing to care more for people around the world.
Michael Seremet, from the world’s most sustainable company in 2021, Schneider Electric, will focus on global platforms and new business models.
Tine Arentsen Willumsen, CEO of Above and Beyond, then brings her huge passion for diversity, to build a better organisation – one as amazing as the people inside it.

In the Transformation Lab, we reflect on “How can you transform your business for good?”

Mark Esposito, from Nexus Frontiertech, is an AI technology expert who works with Harvard and the UAE Government to accelerate transformation across entire industries.
Anette Rosengren, MD Nordics of Philip Morris, will explain why she is about to “kill off Marlboro Man” in pursuit of a non-smoking, healthier future.
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, Head of GSK’s sustainable transformation, will focus on his passion for better project management, making transformation projects work, faster.
Hans Axel Kristensen, CEO of Plastix, will leave us with his own personal story, of creating a business that puts saving our natural environment at its heart.

Q: What should participants expect to gain from attending the forum this year?

I know that there is no shortage of ideas and information right now. I also know, how busy everyone has got in recent months.

But that’s why we all need a burst of enlightened acceleration.

This will not be like a normal conference. It’s not about snoozing in your seats and rubbing shoulders with celebrity names. We need to get real. We need new ideas, and we need to ensure we apply them faster and smarter to our businesses, right now.

And we have the world’s most sustainable companies in 2020 and 2021 – who better to learn from, in terms of the strategies and implementations towards becoming a company that really can make the world better – and be a successful business.

It’s going to be challenging, but inspiring, and great fun!