The Peace Dividend Initiative (PDI) is a peace-dividend accelerator dedicated to harnessing market forces for peace. PDI bridges the gap between peace mediation and economic actors through dialogue, incubation, and investment. Headquartered in Geneva, PDI is connected to peacemakers, international organizations, governments, investors, and entrepreneurs.
https://www.peacedividends.org/
So PDI has been cultivating peace-supporting economic opportunities in fragile and at-risk countries. In other words, incubating enterprises in places that have signed cease-fire agreements or in conflicts. What has been missing in these places are opportunities and funding to be able to kickstart economic activities/opportunities for the people. For example, ex-soldiers might go back to the militias/terrorists if they have no other alternative to earn a living. In Colombia, PDI has supported the incubation of a premium cacao company as well as a coffee company.
There are currently 40 countries in the World Bank’s “Fragile and Conflict affected Situations” list or in short the FCS list. There is a dire need for peace-making in the world so that all countries can continue to survive, thrive and prosper.
An exciting development is that PDI is joining forces with Symbiotics to launch a Peace Venture Fund. This can allow a blended finance opportunity for governments as well as private sector and philanhtropists to invest in achieving PEACE.
In the past few weeks, I came across several exciting new trends and innovations in the area of impact investment and blended finance. These include; the emerging social impact markets, trading social outcomes, and Impact-Linked Finance.
Impact-Linked Finance is a form of funding that directly links financial rewards to the achievement of positive outcomes. It incorporates financial incentives for enterprises that achieve exceptional (agreed upon and verifiable) positive outcomes. That means that a social enterprise will enjoy better financing terms (ie lower interest rates or a grant alongside a loan) if they meet specific impact outcomes.
“These outcomes can come in many shapes and forms – for example increased incomes for the poor, more gender equality, reduced plastic waste, or improved learning outcomes for children. The more social or environmental value a company creates, the lower its cost of capital will be. This value-creation could have a powerful effect. The best companies in the world – in terms of positive impact – would suddenly be able to raise large amounts of low-cost capital to scale. And even more importantly, they could further optimize their impact. As a result, resources would flow to what matters most to society, and this has mutually reinforcing effects” (Bjoern Struewer, Roots of Impact)
The Climate School powered by Kite Insights aims to equip all employees with the knowledge (head), motivation (heart), and tools (hands) to become true leaders and take action on climate and other sustainability issues.
Disclosure: the latest addition to my portfolio career is being a Kite Insights Fellow
The problem: while companies are making increasingly bold sustainability commitments…few are transforming their organizations at the pace or scale needed to positively impact nature and climate change. Achieving net-zero targets requires radical transformation of every aspect of a company.
At the same time, the latest survey (Every Job is a Climate Job) shows that 83% of employees are ready to take action in the context of their work, irrespective of their seniority, gender, or function. So there is a huge employee engagement opportunity.
The solution: The Climate School – We activate employees’ readiness, willingness, and ability to act through an education and engagement program designed to boost: climate knowledge, climate conscience, and climate action.
The approach: Evaluate measuring employee readiness with our proprietary Climate Action Readiness Assessment (CARA). Based on the results we move to educate and co-develop customized engagement and learning journeys that include e-modules, workshops, and masterclasses by the level of knowledge, function, level of seniority, and geography. Armed with a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities, we further support our clients to activate employees, facilitating ideas for change, and how they can advocate and lead on these issues aligned with corporate business and sustainable strategies.
The 2022 GenderSmart Investing Summit took place in London on Oct 18-19. Although I could not attend physically, I could feel the enthusiasm, power, and passion through reading and watching the takeaways, highlights, and videos. This powerful movement to mainstream and integrate gender across the whole capital spectrum and all value chains is accelerating.
GenderSmart’s merger with 2XCollaborative into 2XGlobal (as of Jan 2023) was announced at the Summit. 2XGlobal‘s mission is “to equip and engage the full spectrum of investors, intermediaries, and innovators capable of transforming systems of finance through the gender-smart deployment of capital across asset classes and markets.”
Also during the Summit, the GenderSmart State of the Field 2022 the most extensive and qualitative survey capturing the broadest and most in-depth spectrum of insight and experience across the gender-smart investing field to date was released.
Kudos to the GenderSmart community and especially to Suzanne Biegel for her leadership and contagious passion for advancing this field forward.
The undeniable effects of climate change, global pandemics, and growing income inequality have heightened corporate awareness of the need to incorporate sustainability into their business strategy. These social and global challenges offer also a unique opportunity to transform the role of business in society. A new paradigm and a global leadership reset are urgently needed.
In the backdrop of Net-zero targets, Reduce Emissions, Reduce Waste and Reduce Plastics (which are all extremely important) there is an exciting and bold body of work surfacing on beyond net-zero and going for positive impact value creation!
The B-Corp movement has been a leading example of this by rallying companies to use business as a force for good and to aim for being the best for the world rather than the best in the world. The new must-read book of Paul Polman “Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take” offers a roadmap towards this new paradigm. More recently I learned about Positive-Impact Companies, Positive Institutions, or Flourishing Enterprises1 which replaces shareholder primacy with greater purpose as the North Star for a company’s journey.
It is not long ago that we have been celebrating the movements of Do Less Harm and “Shareholder Primacy to Stakeholder Capitalism” but the notion of “Flourishing Enterprises” seems to guide us to aim for one step further by including in the business purpose the flourishing of people and planet and acknowledging the interconnected nature of business success with the long-term prosperity of the planet.
slide from Chris Laszlo’s presentation on “Flourishing Enterprise” at the 5th Global Forum for Business as an Agent for World Benefit, Oct 19-28th, 2021
So, what are these Flourishing Enterprises?
According to David Cooperrider, “It is something every leader wants…. Flourishing enterprise is about people inspired every day and bringing their whole selves into the enterprise, it’s about agility and innovation arising from everywhere; and it’s about realizing remarkable relationship value with stakeholders, including customers and societies, and ultimately with a flourishing earth.” 2
Chris Laszlo3 referred to “Unilever, Orsted, Natura, Ikea, Triodos Bank, Eileen Fisher, Gro Intelligence, TOMS, Greyston Bakery, Beyond Meat, Headspace, and Kingfisher as examples of emerging Flourishing companies. These are for-profit businesses that compete on the basis of creating a positive impact for society and the environment. Their model for business success is that by creating prosperity in the communities that they are part of and by contributing to a regenerative natural environment and improving human well-being, they can actually be more successful than their peers that don’t have this focus.” (Of this list, Natura, Triodos Bank, Eileen Fisher, TOMS, Greyston Bakery are also B Corps) According to Laszlo, Flourishing enterprises embed 5 key factors in their organizational strategy:
Positive impact (not only reducing harm but improving social, environmental or health dimensions)
The approach is embedded in their life cycle (so not a pilot nor a part of the company but end to end)
Radical innovation (not incremental)
Socially inclusive
Efforts aiming at system change
The concept of “doing well by doing good” (that there are investments where you can have both financial and social returns, i.e., impact investments) inspired me to write a book on Microfinance and Microfinance Investments4 in 2004. This concept has developed and expanded over the years as more evidence mounted that it is possible to achieve both goals and now, we can witness businesses changing their purpose to include the prosperity of people and the planet not only because it is the right thing to do but because it is the way for the business to thrive!
1 This concept has been created, researched analyzed, documented, and presented by Chris Laszlo, David Cooperrider, Ron Fry, Ignacio Pavez, and Lori D. Kendall.
2Presentation at the 5th Global Forum for Business as an Agent for World Benefit. “The Great Leadership Reset” Day 1: David Cooperrider on “The Discovery and Design of Positive Institutions: Harnessing the Power of Mirror Flourishing”
3Presentation at the 5th Global Forum for Business as an Agent for World Benefit, Day 5: Chris Laszlo on “Flourishing Enterprise”
4Felder-Kuzu, Naoko: Making Sense: Microfinance and Microfinance Investments, Murmann Verlag, Hamburg, 2004
In some ways quickly and in others in slow motion, the world has changed in front of our eyes and screens. We, everyone in the world, have been impacted by the same cause, almost at the same time. This turmoil caused by the Covid-19 pandemic underlines how we are interconnected and it is a wakeup call for us to realize what truly matters and what not. Needless to say, there is a big difference in the challenges posed depending on where you are and the degree of how privileged or not privileged you are. As to this reality of inequality what comes to mind is one of my profound beliefs;
“From those to whom much is given, much is expected”
So, what kind of mindset is needed and what can we do in this period of colossal transformation?
Stay fit physically, emotionally and spiritually
Be adaptable, positive, creative, courageous, empathetic and mindful of others
Connect, communicate and share your ideas and feelings to your loved ones, your colleagues and your community.
Offer help and encouragement to those in need
It is “The Great Reset”. I saw this expression first after the financial crisis of 2008 but I believe this time it is even more the case as it is impacting and transforming everyone’s lives in a massive way. How can we prepare for the future?
Stay positive.
Deal with what is needed today and tomorrow but think and plan for long term.
Master remote working, redefine how you work effectively and build trust with your team, suppliers, customers and investors using the necessary tools.
Discover or learn new skills that you were not aware you would be interested in. (webinars, Coursera, masterclasses)
Search for new opportunities that are surfacing.
Adapt, listen, learn, be empathetic.
We have a great opportunity (The Great Reset) to make our world better and more resilient by reinventing, redefining and improving on ourselves, our businesses and our planet.
The 4th European B Corp Summit took place on Sept 23-24 in Amsterdam. Great energy as this community drives a new agenda for capitalism and it feels that we are close to the tipping point! The B Corp movement using business as a force of good is growing steadily. Today there are 3000 B Corps in 70 countries and 600 in Europe while 100,000 companies are using the B Impact Assessment to improve their businesses. Two main topics were highlighted throughout the summit; 1) the shift from shareholder primacy to a commitment to all stakeholders, and 2) the emergency of the climate change crisis. John Elkington, world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development introduced his new concept and book for tomorrow’s capitalism “Green Swans”. The global agenda is changing exponentially, from responsibility and resilience to regeneration. If exponential problems are known as Black Swans, exponential regeneration calls for Green Swans. So, he calls B Corps the ugly ducklings that would likely become the Green Swans.
Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of B Lab, stressed the urgency of system change. First, recognize the system failure then fix it: change from shareholder to stakeholder capitalism, from a culture of more to one of enough. Jay also shared the draft of B Lab’s Declaration of Climate Emergency and System Failure to be launched soon, committing further this community to tackle climate as a business strategy.
News: In January 2020, B Lab is launching the SDG Action Manager in partnership with the UN Global Compact. Using this free tool, one can 1) get a clear view of how your operations, supply chain, and business model create positive impact, 2) take action and track progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals 2) New B Corps announced at the summit: Bodyshop, Danone Belgium, Danone Netherlands.
Key actions: collaborate, let’s get working together, B the change!
On August 19th, 2019 the Business Roundtable (the association of CEOs of America’s leading companies) released a new Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation. This new statement was signed by 181 CEOs who commit to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders-customers, employees, suppliers, communities and stakeholders. This is a significant move away from their stance since 1978 as principles issued until now endorsed shareholder primacy (that corporations exist principally to serve shareholders).
The long-awaited paradigm shift! Or shall we be sceptical that these changes will be implemented?
In the days following this announcement, we have seen debates shaping and many cautionary but constructive articles being published. There was an immediate critical response announced by the Council of Institutional Investors raising outdated concerns that the statement undercuts notions of managerial accountability to shareholders. The B Corporation movement founders, who have been in the forefront of redefining the role of businesses into one that delivers value to all stakeholders, published an excellent article “Don’t Believe the Business Roundtable has changed until the CEOs’ action match their words” This title sounds a bit harsh but it is important to hold the CEOs accountable and a full-page ad “Let’s get to work” was posted in the Sunday New York Times urging them to get to work (together).
In addition to the B Corporation movement, there has been in the past few years some signs of this impending paradigm shift as witnessed by the letters to the CEOs written by Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock “linking purpose and profits”. Another powerful movement that is growing is lead by Singularity University which is shaping leaders and organizations by using exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest challenges and build a better future for all. This latest statement by the Business Roundtable is a gigantic step forward and although it might take some time until their action matches their words, slowly but surely we are getting aligned and moving in the right direction. No turning back.
The output of the workshop, the graphic novel of the Future of Learning is now live! Also SU has created the Exponential Guide to the Future of Learning, which provides valuable content and resources on this topic.
From SU website;
The Future of Learning SciFi DI workshop brought together more than 50 participants, including SU Faculty and staff, startups, mentors, and alumni, as well as local teachers, students, nonprofits and foundations all connected to the field of learning innovation. We explored trends in exponential technologies, took a deep dive into augmented reality and virtual reality, discussed the future of learning and work. Identifying current challenges in the global education system, we tried to re-imagine these challenges after assuming a number of technological and social advances that could occur within fifteen years. Then the participants were led through a process of capturing the life and story of an individual living fifteen years into the future, which artists and writers in the room transformed into the graphic novel. Through the characters of the novel we explore central questions about the future purpose of learning, what it will mean to be a student or teacher in the future, what a school might look like in the future, what a curriculum might look like, and what life might feel like in general. In particular, we imagined a world where a school could follow the student instead of the student attending a school, where today’s learning curriculum and grading system is replaced by students advancing in their learning by solving real-life problems, where the boundary between being a student and teacher blurs, and where adults and children often learn together.
While we hope you’ll enjoy immersing yourself in this particular version of the future, we encourage you to design your own. What will a student, teacher, school, and curriculum look like? What technologies would you incorporate, and how would they help bring about a world where everyone could be inspired to learn and teach, solve real-world problems, and find opportunities to contribute to their community?
8 weeks have passed since the intense week at Singularity U, where 92 curious and fun minds were exposed to and learned from the awesome experts in the field of exponential technologies as well as from each other.
Some of the phrases that stuck and continue to sink in:
-unlearn, be bold
-be adaptable
-the biggest risk is not thinking big enough
-make a note to my future self
-ask good questions
-data integrity… screen for the truth
-machine learning, cloud robotics
-blockchain, a new way to consider trust
-abundance: rising income, lifespan, food and water availability
-massive cost reduction: energy, VR, human genome sequencing, in-vitro meat, 3D printing
-digital manufacturing in space
-XR (extended reality) will accelerate dematerialization (spaces & experience)
-inclusive abundance: imperative for human survival (is it possible?)
-longevity escape velocity
-nanobots in our brains in 2030?
-quantum/blockchain/solar/AI supremacy converging in 2025?
-reframe strategy: zoom in (6-12m) zoom out (10-20 years)
-technology will allow us to do everything… exciting and a bit scary if used badly
-importance of ethics and moral enhancement
We did learn a lot then, but now it feels that the executive program was just the beginning. We are sharing great stories and news, asking better questions, so we continue to accelerate our learning journey. We are also connecting people from our networks and aiming to scale the positive impact that we can create while finding solutions to the great challenges. How exciting it is imagining what we can achieve collectively over time! Thank you SU and SU colleagues!
