10 Break-Out Sessions
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This years Leaders of Tomorrow (LoT) have gathered from all over the world, to challenge the purpose of capital. For them, the St. Gallen Symposium started on Wednesday with a full day dedicated to their ideas. Along with the two Main Partners for this day – ABB and Accenture – the LoTs spent the day brainstorming, debating and discussing.
It began with a presentation by Prasad Swaminathan, Group Senior Vice President of ABB and Thomas Meyer, Managing Director Accenture Switzerland, who captivated the audience by presenting the first four challenges:
Challenge 1: The new world order – Impact on Competencies
Challenge 2: The new world order – Impact on Shareholders
Challenge 3: Intellectual Property in Professional Services
Challenge 4: Human Capital in digital age
After one hour of preparation, the LoT were ready to charmingly present their insightful and intriguing ideas. Freedom to creativity, innovation and growth as well as reducing rigid hierarchies were the inputs for the first challenge. When it comes to measuring impact, non-financial tools such as the Co2 Emission or Employment increase shall be part of the success. Inputs to the third challenge, were the importance of brand and purpose as well as trust. Lastly, Mentorship programs and measures to sustain psychological health were mentioned to protect the human capital in the digital age.
After the first session, Prof. Colin Mayer, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford took the stage and challenged Friedman’s doctrine. Is the existence of businesses only reduced to making profit and in creating, besides existing, further problems to be “solved”? Does this have something to do with people being hesitant to trust business leaders? If so, where lies the fundamental problem? The answer is, lack of purpose. On one hand the corporate purpose should be in line with the purpose of the shareholders, on the other hand, companies are advised to move from fake profits towards fair profits. Accounting standards should not only include traditional assets, but also take human capital into account. And who is responsible to solve the problem – government or private sector? Successfully aligning both interests will prevent exploitative behaviour towards each other. Therefore, both together shall join forces to solve the problem.
After discussing the challenges from Prof. Colin Mayer and enjoying the provided lunch, the Leaders of Tomorrow were invited to the Würth Haus in Rorschach. Starting off, chosen Leaders of Tomorrow presented what their groups had discussed previously. To Prof. Mayers first Challenge “From shareholder primacy to purpose primacy” the LoT said that the governments should play a role in adding to accountability as they bring the resources. They also said that the purpose must come bottom up. They saw the social impact as even more relevant as it has focus, intention and outcome, and they suggested that governments should shift from a punishing to a deserving form where firms that are strongly beneficial would receive tax deductions.
To the second challenge “Mission and governance of purpose-driven companies” both presenters agreed that there are many great examples of purpose driven companies but also many that are not up to par. They see the problem, that companies could die since the world around us is constant change and purpose might not ensure a sustainability of a company. Also, they question what purpose could be measured in.
The third challenge was “The true nature of profits and business models”. The presenters believe that the public should be made aware of companies that value capital over everything else such as the state of the people working or even the environment as this could lead to a resistance of these companies. Further they suggested that the government should install penalties to said corporations.
The fourth and final challenge was “Addressing societal issues beyond regulations”. Here it was presented that it is unfortunate that capitalism is beginning to be brought in such a bad light. And they came up with three main ideas. First, one should redefine social contract. Social purpose cannot be forced by law or be driven by regulations, but it can be enforced by people. Leaders of today shall make the change. Secondly, accountability must be improved throughout and lastly, one should empower stakeholder discussions. We must relearn that disagreements between people are a necessity of life and behind most disagreements there is a chance of learning and improving.
After the presentation of ideas by the Leaders of Tomorrow there was a panel discussion led by former Leader of Tomorrow Jason George (J.M. George, Inc.). The guests were Maria Teresa Zappia (Chief Investment Officer of BlueOrchard), Thomas Meyer (Managing Director, Accenture Switzerland), Timo Ihamuotila (Chief Financial Officer, ABB) and Professor Colin Mayer (Saïd Business School, University of Oxford). The panel discussed purpose in companies, how it is not always easy in an everchanging world. They positively commented on the great ideas the Leaders of Tomorrow have come up with. They stated that capitalism enables innovation but can also destroy traditions. As an example, they named Tesla as not being from the traditional car industry but with its discovery changing traditions. They said that there is a global movement of enhancement going on and many companies are aware of it and moving in the right direction. Yet, it is a movement which will not happen overnight as companies have responsibilities for various families. At the end of the panel the Leaders of Tomorrow were able to ask the various questions followed by an aperitif and later a dinner at the Würth Haus which was also where further discussions about this enlightening day were able to be made.