WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.339 --> 00:00:04.550 Hi, I'm Rich Lesser. I'm here in Davos at the end of a week 2 00:00:04.550 --> 00:00:05.920 at the World Economic Forum. 3 00:00:05.920 --> 00:00:08.550 They're starting to dismantle all of the various displays, 4 00:00:08.550 --> 00:00:09.850 and people are going home. 5 00:00:09.850 --> 00:00:11.640 But we're still here for a bit longer 6 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:13.100 to share some impressions. 7 00:00:13.100 --> 00:00:15.076 I'm joined here with Martin Reeves. 8 00:00:15.076 --> 00:00:17.720 He's the chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, 9 00:00:17.720 --> 00:00:19.840 and he's been a participant here for many years 10 00:00:19.840 --> 00:00:23.330 and connects across such a broad network 11 00:00:23.330 --> 00:00:28.150 of CEOs and academics and NGO leaders and many others. 12 00:00:28.150 --> 00:00:31.898 So Martin, what were your key impressions from the week? 13 00:00:31.898 --> 00:00:33.870 Well, it's very different from last year. 14 00:00:33.870 --> 00:00:35.240 I mean, as always, everything, 15 00:00:35.240 --> 00:00:36.560 everybody's discussing everything. 16 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:38.220 But the emphasis has changed. 17 00:00:38.220 --> 00:00:40.436 So I think two years ago we were discussing the wonderful 18 00:00:40.436 --> 00:00:42.600 promise of all sorts of technologies 19 00:00:42.600 --> 00:00:44.260 and the need for new business models. 20 00:00:44.260 --> 00:00:46.700 Last year, there was a big shadow, which was short-term 21 00:00:46.700 --> 00:00:47.910 economic risk, 22 00:00:47.910 --> 00:00:49.110 which hasn't actually materialized. 23 00:00:49.110 --> 00:00:51.230 There's been a lot of uncertainty, but that's gone 24 00:00:51.230 --> 00:00:52.320 out of the spotlight this year. 25 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:55.770 And then this year, it's about the very broad canvas 26 00:00:55.770 --> 00:00:58.560 of society and planet. 27 00:00:58.560 --> 00:00:59.860 People are concerned about the long-term 28 00:00:59.860 --> 00:01:01.270 sustainability challenges. 29 00:01:01.270 --> 00:01:03.990 And actually it's quite convincing in the sense 30 00:01:03.990 --> 00:01:05.320 that it's not just the official agenda 31 00:01:05.320 --> 00:01:07.080 and the names of the sessions, 32 00:01:07.080 --> 00:01:08.370 that is actually what people are talking about 33 00:01:08.370 --> 00:01:09.550 in the side conversations. 34 00:01:09.550 --> 00:01:10.550 Clearly, I had the exact same. 35 00:01:10.550 --> 00:01:13.000 So much of the discussion this week, 36 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:15.759 with a real bias to what can we actually do. 37 00:01:15.759 --> 00:01:18.550 And an encouraging thing and a broader discussion, 38 00:01:18.550 --> 00:01:19.864 didn't you think? 39 00:01:19.864 --> 00:01:22.520 Like nature-based solutions, different ways to tackle it. 40 00:01:22.520 --> 00:01:26.470 But also a recognition of the challenging context 41 00:01:26.470 --> 00:01:28.640 with governments being in very different places, 42 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:31.660 trying to get various different stakeholder communities. 43 00:01:31.660 --> 00:01:33.280 It's actually quite surprising how much progress 44 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:35.460 we've made in terms of embracing the problem, 45 00:01:35.460 --> 00:01:39.510 quantifying it, realizing that corporations should 46 00:01:39.510 --> 00:01:41.210 do something about it. 47 00:01:41.210 --> 00:01:43.570 And making progress on a lot of solutions, too. 48 00:01:43.570 --> 00:01:45.140 Actually it's quite impressive in some sense. 49 00:01:45.140 --> 00:01:47.080 There are some major remaining problems 50 00:01:47.080 --> 00:01:48.440 like the coordination challenge. 51 00:01:48.440 --> 00:01:49.710 But we've come a long way. 52 00:01:49.710 --> 00:01:52.360 I think the difference now is a few years ago, 53 00:01:52.360 --> 00:01:55.300 I don't think, first of all, the urgency's gone up. 54 00:01:55.300 --> 00:01:56.860 Not just by the leaders here in Davos 55 00:01:56.860 --> 00:01:58.310 but by pressures from the world. 56 00:01:58.310 --> 00:01:59.400 Greta was here today. 57 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:00.990 I don't know if you saw her across the street 58 00:02:00.990 --> 00:02:02.218 a little while ago. 59 00:02:02.218 --> 00:02:06.790 But also recognition that most of the levers 60 00:02:06.790 --> 00:02:08.500 to tackle this from a technology sense 61 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:09.920 are within our grasp. 62 00:02:09.920 --> 00:02:13.060 And the economics of addressing climate change 63 00:02:13.060 --> 00:02:16.140 are relatively small, certainly compared to the magnitude 64 00:02:16.140 --> 00:02:17.340 of not addressing it. 65 00:02:17.340 --> 00:02:19.270 Then you get into the coordination challenges 66 00:02:19.270 --> 00:02:21.210 across governments in particular 67 00:02:21.210 --> 00:02:23.370 but also the investor community, others. 68 00:02:23.370 --> 00:02:25.210 I think people also acknowledge there are just 69 00:02:25.210 --> 00:02:27.300 huge challenges ahead to make that happen 70 00:02:27.300 --> 00:02:29.199 at the speed and depth we need to. 71 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:31.100 I want to come back to one other theme. 72 00:02:31.100 --> 00:02:33.940 A year ago, you and I had just written our article together 73 00:02:33.940 --> 00:02:35.090 on winning the 20s. 74 00:02:35.090 --> 00:02:36.780 And we introduced it a year ago. 75 00:02:36.780 --> 00:02:39.796 But in the year since then, with the BCG Henderson Institute 76 00:02:39.796 --> 00:02:42.610 and colleagues around the world, we've been going deep 77 00:02:42.610 --> 00:02:44.200 on each of the five themes. 78 00:02:44.200 --> 00:02:45.670 And I know that was a large part of 79 00:02:45.670 --> 00:02:47.570 your discussions this year. 80 00:02:47.570 --> 00:02:51.010 A year in, what are your takeaways for where people are at 81 00:02:51.010 --> 00:02:53.730 and where you're even at on that winning the 20s framework? 82 00:02:53.730 --> 00:02:55.380 Right, so just reminding people, 83 00:02:55.380 --> 00:02:56.900 we had sort of five major themes. 84 00:02:56.900 --> 00:03:00.380 One was the need to compete on learning, 85 00:03:00.380 --> 00:03:02.150 because there's going be so much change, 86 00:03:02.150 --> 00:03:03.280 we need to learn new things. 87 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.780 The second one was creating learning organizations 88 00:03:05.780 --> 00:03:08.756 and combining machine intelligence and human intelligence. 89 00:03:08.756 --> 00:03:12.138 The third one was being more scientific about 90 00:03:12.138 --> 00:03:16.360 the change processes, because change is important 91 00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:18.316 and unpredictable. 92 00:03:18.316 --> 00:03:20.938 The fourth was harnessing human diversity. 93 00:03:20.938 --> 00:03:24.400 And the fifth was business and society. 94 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:26.790 So coming to Davos, we could've found out that actually 95 00:03:26.790 --> 00:03:27.980 the whole thing was completely wrong 96 00:03:27.980 --> 00:03:29.210 and that it was something else, 97 00:03:29.210 --> 00:03:31.877 but we actually tested this last night at 98 00:03:31.877 --> 00:03:34.990 the CEO dinner, and we just got the results back. 99 00:03:34.990 --> 00:03:37.990 And we asked the CEOs, what was your resolution 100 00:03:37.990 --> 00:03:40.970 for the next decade, and actually the biggest resolution 101 00:03:40.970 --> 00:03:43.030 was pillar five. 102 00:03:43.030 --> 00:03:45.250 It was business and society, as we've just 103 00:03:45.250 --> 00:03:46.410 been talking about. 104 00:03:46.410 --> 00:03:49.450 And then the second biggest components were pillar one, 105 00:03:49.450 --> 00:03:51.570 which is learning, 106 00:03:51.570 --> 00:03:53.040 competing on learning, 107 00:03:53.040 --> 00:03:56.536 and building the hybrid or the bionic learning organization. 108 00:03:56.536 --> 00:04:00.340 The change and the diversity were there, 109 00:04:00.340 --> 00:04:01.620 but at a slightly lower level. 110 00:04:01.620 --> 00:04:05.170 So I think actually we called it pretty right, 111 00:04:05.170 --> 00:04:06.320 if that's not immodest. 112 00:04:06.320 --> 00:04:10.930 I also think that there's an enormous energy, I find, 113 00:04:10.930 --> 00:04:12.730 maybe because it's a decade turning 114 00:04:12.730 --> 00:04:14.800 or maybe because people are so aware of all the 115 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:18.310 changes coming. I think people really want to engage, 116 00:04:18.310 --> 00:04:20.780 not just about 2020 as a year, 117 00:04:20.780 --> 00:04:23.600 but about how to think a bit more out there to make sure 118 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:25.418 that the changes they make in 2020 are actually 119 00:04:25.418 --> 00:04:28.760 creating organizational success for the longer term. 120 00:04:28.760 --> 00:04:32.790 And while I agree, or I'm sure in this survey diversity 121 00:04:32.790 --> 00:04:35.640 did come up, I spent time at Female Quotient, 122 00:04:35.640 --> 00:04:37.482 which is a group down the street. 123 00:04:37.482 --> 00:04:40.890 I was amazed at the level of energy 124 00:04:40.890 --> 00:04:43.040 and the engagement on what does it take to make 125 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:45.210 diversity really work in organizations, 126 00:04:45.210 --> 00:04:46.770 create inclusiveness. 127 00:04:46.770 --> 00:04:48.580 It was probably my favorite conversation of the week, 128 00:04:48.580 --> 00:04:51.380 with the founder of that group. 129 00:04:51.380 --> 00:04:53.170 It's quite interesting. 130 00:04:53.170 --> 00:04:54.003 I agree. 131 00:04:54.003 --> 00:04:55.674 I also saw an openness to, 132 00:04:55.674 --> 00:04:59.570 and I'd say even an appetite and a curiosity, to redefine 133 00:04:59.570 --> 00:05:01.880 the managerial, the leadership agenda 134 00:05:01.880 --> 00:05:02.713 for the decade. 135 00:05:02.713 --> 00:05:05.775 We need it, and there's an energy and enthusiasm around it. 136 00:05:05.775 --> 00:05:07.500 Thanks, Martin, good travels home. 137 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:08.333 Thank you. 138 00:05:08.333 --> 00:05:09.170 And thank you, everybody.