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(upbeat music)
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Hello everyone.
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Thank you for joining us on LinkedIn today
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for a discussion coming off the heels of the first-ever
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virtual Davos hosted by the World Economic Forum.
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I'm here with Mai-Britt Poulsen.
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BCG's system leader for London, Amsterdam, and Brussels
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and our former global chief of staff.
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We wanted to take a few minutes
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to reflect on what we heard at Davos
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and how that shaped our views
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on what should be the agenda for leaders as they begin 2021.
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Mai-Britt, it's great to see you.
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Thanks for being here.
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Hi Rich.
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Thank you for inviting me to be here.
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It's always a pleasure.
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What a week this has been.
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I never would have thought last year
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when we were standing in Switzerland
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with our teams that we could do this in a virtual way.
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But I must say the week has been super inspiring
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and I've been listening to many of the conversations
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amongst many of our world leaders.
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I'm coming out very, very inspired after the week.
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The big discussions on climate, on digitization
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and technology, on how we rebuild after the COVID crisis,
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and so many other topics.
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I really found it was super inspiring.
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I don't know about you, Rich.
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What topics did you take away as your favorite topics?
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For me, a good chunk of my discussions were centered
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on climate with the Alliance for CEO Climate Leaders,
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as well as how do we get better multistakeholder
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metrics in place more generally.
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I'd say those were really important.
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But also I joined the Edison Alliance kickoff meeting.
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Hans Vestburg and Robert Smith led that discussion.
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That was also really good, about how do we close
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the digital divide around the world.
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Just so much to talk about.
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So much to talk about.
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I should not forget diversity and inclusion, by the way,
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that was also a big topic.
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But let's start with climate.
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We'll get back to the digital inclusion.
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I think that's a very fundamental topic also coming
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after the first year of COVID.
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But let's start with climate,
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which I know is also one of your favorite topics.
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I listened to the special address by the president
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of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen,
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and she made a great speech.
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She actually reflected on her speech last year
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when she was standing in person in Switzerland
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talking about the European Green Deal
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and also the digitization plan for Europe.
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A greener Europe and a smarter Europe.
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She said the ambition level has not changed.
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Europe wants to be the first continent in the world
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that reaches net zero by 2050.
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She talked about concrete plans,
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such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions
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with a target of 55% reduction by 2030
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and how they plan going about supporting that
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from the EU Commission.
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It was super inspiring.
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Rich, I know you are super passionate on climate,
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both as a global business leader and as a human being.
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You've been leading our climate work in BCG
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on the net zero and you are leading our work with the WEF,
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the recent report that we published just before the forum.
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The climate alliance with CEOs that you've been advising on.
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Also encouraging companies to commit to net zero.
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What did you take away from the climate conversations that
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you were driving, which I was super, super proud to see?
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First, I just want to start, we'll get to business,
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because business has a huge responsibility here.
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But I have been so encouraged on the government side.
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I know there's a long way to go.
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But if I think versus a year ago,
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I also saw the address for Ursula von der Leyen
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and I thought she was terrific.
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But Europe was already on board, and she's just getting it
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more and more specific.
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What's happened in China, and President Xi's remarks.
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John Kerry was there, he was quite passionate about this
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from the US end.
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I heard Prime Minister Suga from Japan
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just a little while ago, and he was great
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and very passionate on this.
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This is a partnership.
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It cannot be government alone,
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but it cannot be without government.
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The progress that governments of the world are making
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to really step up and make it more tangible.
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We'll see where we are by COP26, it's encouraging.
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Most of my energy personally
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is what can the business community do
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to do our share to accelerate progress
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and that was a really encouraging week.
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We had a great discussion
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in the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders.
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I think it was 45 CEOs
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of really leading companies were there.
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We presented the supply chain opportunity work
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that BCG's been doing with the WEF.
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Got great reception because I think people realize
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that supply chains really are the to way think about
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how do you make step-change improvements
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in a way that can feel affordable,
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that could actually get stuff done.
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We talked about how we would set the bar really high
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for membership in the Alliance.
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Words are good, but tangible commitments and actions
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are the expectation.
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I think people were very supportive around that.
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We talked about how we mobilize real progress
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between now and COP26.
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There was a lot of energy there.
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I would just say on multiple fronts
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the sense of momentum from the government end,
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from the business end was encouraging.
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Of course we have decades of hard actions we need to take.
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Declaring victory now would be foolhardy,
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but it does feel versus a year ago we've made a big step.
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My hope is a year from now, post-COP26,
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it's going to feel like we've taken another big step.
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Both in the number of companies involved
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as well as the commitment level from both governments
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and business to make progress here.
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That's really encouraging to hear, Rich.
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I also noticed many CEOs, including yourself,
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talking about how we've become much more action-oriented
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on the plan, so it's not only the net-zero pledges,
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but really becoming action-oriented
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around the levers and the soft targets.
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I heard people talking about a tipping point
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for climate action really coming very fast here.
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Let's hope this positive momentum continues.
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I can definitely feel it in the business community.
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Another topic to address would be the digital divide
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and the technology advancement.
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If I look back at the past year, the digital acceleration
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has just been enormous.
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The way we now work, the way we socialize, the way we live,
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the way we shop, so much has accelerated
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when it comes to digital.
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That is of course super positive.
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I hear experts talking about a five-year-plus leapfrog
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in digital acceleration.
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But it also brings a number of challenges.
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Challenges around cybersecurity, about digital inclusion,
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about digital skills and access gaps.
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I think it's very important that we address that.
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In relation to that, I also saw the kickoff
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of the Edison Alliance, which inspired me a lot
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and there was a specific quote
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from the executive chairman of Mastercard.
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I wanted to share it and I wrote it down,
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because I thought it was really good.
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The chairman of Mastercard, Ajay Banga, he said,
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"You cannot have the internet of everything
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without the internet for everyone."
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The talk about 3 billion in the world
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not having access to the internet,
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and how do we deal with that?
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How are you thinking about that?
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You also are part of the Edison Alliance, Rich.
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Yes.
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First, Ajay Banga's terrific in general,
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and I think on this topic he is very passionate
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and really good.
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After that session, there was also a champions meeting.
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The CEOs of 20, 30 companies
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and some other government leaders
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from Rwanda, other countries, got together
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to talk about how do we really advance this?
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This is in an earlier stage effort, it's actually
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in part, not in total, in part emerging from work
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that BCG did with the WEF on addressing the digital divide.
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There's a great report, if people are interested,
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that they published last fall that basically said
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the real bar should be at least 30 megabits per second.
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That's what it means to have real broadband.
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You could argue it's higher,
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but at least if you're at that level.
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Right now, 47% of the world
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does not have that level of access.
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Either it's not available to them, or they can't afford it.
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The report was about
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how do we close more than half that gap?
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To get 2.1 billion people
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to that level of broadband access by 2025,
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we believe it's about a $2 trillion investment.
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I don't want to minimize that that's a lot.
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On the other hand, the telcos around the world
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have spent $5 trillion to get us to where we are
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over the last 20 years, so it's not inconceivable.
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But it's a lot.
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It talks about, what do we do to make it accessible
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and make it affordable to really close that gap?
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I heard Hans Vestberg, Robert Smith,
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really great business leaders who are, I think,
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really wanting to engage about how do we come together
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to accelerate progress both in countries that are emerging
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but also in the more developed countries
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where there's still large portions of the population
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that may not have access.
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We need to get them access.
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This is a global problem,
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it's not in any one particular country or part of the world.
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It's earlier stage, is what my sense is.
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I was there at the earlier part of the climate stuff.
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I look at how far we've come in a couple years.
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I'm optimistic we can do this.
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I would just say the other group that I'm in
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and spend a lot of time with is the Business Roundtable.
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I've also been really impressed how when you get
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US CEOs together, of course COVID is front and center,
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but actually getting this digital divide issue addressed
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is a really top priority for business leaders,
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even in the US, which I found really encouraging.
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Yeah, I like how you talk about the collaboration
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and how you exemplify it, Rich.
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Because the power of collaboration
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and the need for global collaboration
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was exactly one of the main themes of this year's summit
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and I think you exemplified that very well.
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It was great to be there this week,
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and even though it was virtual, I certainly took away
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a lot of topics, a lot of inspiration,
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but also a lot of actions
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that we need to work with as leaders.
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Yes.
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I have to give the World Economic Forum credit
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because it's not easy to do it virtual.
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You and I know that from trying to do
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virtual global partner meetings.
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This is tough to pull off.
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I think we were all a little skeptical going in,
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but the conversations that I was in
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felt very real and grounded.
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Felt at least as much action orientation
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as when you're in Davos.
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Of course you miss the human interactions a lot
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that you get informally,
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which is often one of the best parts.
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But in terms of driving an agenda,
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I thought it was a very effective week.
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I thought, in general, the government leaders
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that I heard speak were impressive,
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which the world needs it.
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The world needs it, so that was great.
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Yeah, if I can just add one point on social inclusion,
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I think the great benefit of this virtual Davos was
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that the world had access to so many of the sessions,
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which was so inspiring for many people that I talked to
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who wouldn't normally have access to the WEF at this scale.
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Yes, I think one of the things were observing
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inside companies, even ours, and beyond is
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that one of the advantages of this
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is it collapses hierarchy and that it opens things up.
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We see it.
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I hear from CEOs all the time,
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they're connecting with more people
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than they might have otherwise inside their organizations.
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Then you get to something like the WEF,
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you can really make it feel like the world's invited
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to a big chunk of what's going on there.
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That's a healthy thing.
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Absolutely.
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Thanks so much for being with me today here, Rich.
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It was great talking to you.
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It's always great to catch up,
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after particularly such an inspiring week.
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Thanks, Mai-Britt.
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Great, see you.
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(upbeat music)