An inspiring and well put together virtual event. Well done to Festival Director Wayne Hemingway and team. Excellent quality streaming video and high production value pre-recorded clips. Good challenging questions from the chairs; Evan Davis, Gaby Logan, etc. Healthy side dialogues and some light networking in the web chat 👍
Assorted notes and quotes:
The days of shareholder supremacy are a thing of the past
Iceland CEO Richard Walker spoke very well about challenges faced. 28k front line staff. Created +3k jobs through the crisis and grew market share attributed to taking a multi-stakeholder approach (looked out for customers and employees). Iceland serves the most deprived communities. “Join the dots between human health and the environment”. Increase in collaboration (between supermarket competitors) and listening (to stakeholders). Iceland is a private business so able to make decisions more independently from their source of capital. “I’m a free marketeer” but believe in gov intervention for big problems. “Doing well by doing good”. “Needs to be a sustainable (i.e. profitable) model” “Profit and purpose are not mutually exclusive.”
Whatever customers may say in surveys, they do not want an extra penny on their shopping to fund [good/environmental] causes.
It’s going to be another 18-24 months before we can hug grandparents!
Significant acceleration of the transition to digital. “The 15 minute city” idea is gaining traction.
Cash use has reduced significantly, driven by hygiene and convenience:
8/10 transactions across Europe are now cash-free.
At any given time there will be 50 world leaders educated at British universities.
Government has failed to lead by banning obviously bad behaviours
Found myself cringing a lot during the “REAL PURPOSE OR WOKE WASHING?” session with Facebook and Samsung marketing reps; the question wasn’t tackled head-on and the answers felt weak and inauthentic. In retrospect, maybe this was a work of genius by the organisers; a setup for satire?! 🤔
Workplaces need to become temples of values
Thomas Heatherwick
“Rethinking how we work” re innovation and collaboration when working from home ~ Innocent CEO Douglas Lamont
The most purposeful businesses are doubling down [on their purposes]
