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Event Details
Event Highlights from
Putting Purpose Into
Action Roundtable
June 30, 2021
Event Details
Event Highlights
Putting Purpose Into Action
June 28, 2021
Aligning companies’ purpose to public value is a top priority for today’s leaders.
Consumers and global stakeholders across supply chains are now more
informed and motivated to act on environmental, social and governance issues
than ever before. Thus, simply paying lip service to issues of crucial public
importance such as climate change, diversity and inclusion and technology for
good is not enough. It is up to leadership teams within companies to transform
positive intent and language into meaningful action.
This virtual roundtable convened a cross-section of C-suite leaders who all
share a common purpose – to drive their businesses forward in the best
possible public interest. These leaders discussed specific areas that their
businesses are prioritizing, including greener policies and broader social
inclusion, in order to give back to their colleagues, clients and communities.
PARTICIPANTS
Claudio Facchin, CEO, Hitachi ABB Power Grids
Alan Haywood, SVP ESG Transformation, BP
Kara Helander, Chief
Event Diversity,
Details Equity and Inclusion Officer, Carlyle Group
Catherine Lenson, Managing Partner, CHRO & Head of Social Impact,
Softbank Vision Fund
Alex Liu, Managing Partner and Chairman of the Board, Kearney
Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder and CEO, Acumen
Jane Toogood, Sector Chief Executive, Efficient Natural Resources,
Johnson Matthey
Enrico Viale, Head of North America, Enel Group
MODERATOR: Sonali Basak, Financial Correspondent, Bloomberg
Click here to view the video of the full discussion.
The conversation opened with Alex Liu, Managing Partner and Chairman of
the Board, Kearney, saying that there have been – particularly in the last year –
higher expectations of leadership. “Our stakeholders are asking us what we
stand for and how do we know that your belief system is true and authentic?”
Liu stressed that tangible and concrete ideas that could translate into actions
are still missing. “This is a purpose gap.” He continued to say to close this gap a
business should ask a number of questions, including: How activist do you want
to be?, How do we inspire the next generation of talent? and how we get the
customer promise right? He also said that the theme of culture is very
important: “As leaders, we need to care what our talent cares about – which are
social issues – and it’s a challenge to know what the right boundaries are to
lead but not to overstep as we are serving a broad community.”
On how to define purpose, Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder and CEO,
Acumen, said, “Purpose is our why and the reason for being.” She continued to
say we shouldn’t wait for the purpose to come to us but rather we should be
proactive, “Look around at the problems you want to solve and take a step
towards it.” Novogratz also said that she felt hopeful as she could see that
corporations want to partner not just with other businesses, but with social
enterprises and also governments. “Corporations are interested in what it takes
to create transparency in pricing along the supply chain and how it will
ultimately impact the consumer.”
The conversation thenEvent
turned to how renewable energy is changing the future
Details
of the energy sector and how energy companies define purpose from the
business perspective. Enrico Viale, Head of North America, Enel Group,
admitted that the sense of purpose has evolved for his business, adding that
understanding what your purpose is is very important, but how to pursue your
purpose is even more important for a business. Viale admitted that the
challenges in the energy transition sector are big, adding that, “We have
realized we won’t be able to tackle those challenges alone.”
Conversation then veered to the role of sustainability and energy transition.
Claudio Facchin, CEO, Hitachi ABB Power Grids, said that they have created
a new company with two strong shareholders to support sustainability and
innovation efforts. “We put sustainability at the heart of our purpose, and we
engage with our customers, partners and all stakeholders.” Facchin continued,
“as we are all driven by the same goal of making efforts to create a sustainable
energy future, we need to join forces,” adding that in order to accelerate the
deployment of technology collaboration across all stakeholders, customers and
competitors have to be of essence.
Alan Haywood, SVP ESG Transformation, BP, said that in February 2020 BP’s
CEO defined their purpose, adding that, “It needs to be meaningful and
endurable so I would say our purpose is to reimagine energy.” He also
discussed that there is a need for real disclosure and transparency in terms of
setting out milestones and metrics so people could see, “Not only the talk, but
that the talk is walking strategically –otherwise the purpose is meaningless.”
The question was then asked how consumers could impact the natural
resources industry. Jane Toogood, Sector Chief Executive, Efficient Natural
Resources, Johnson Matthey, agreed with the other participants that purpose
needs to be enduring in the business. Toogood thought that the pandemic has
engendered a huge acceleration in trends around sustainability and real
awareness by consumers, which has directly affected the business. “In order
for us to achieve the pace of the change that’s needed, we have to work with
other companies; never has it been so important to understand who it is you
are working with: suppliers, your customers, your partners and how they
approach their purpose and values.”
On the role of technology
Eventand how new start-ups could be helpful to the world
Details
and also give a good return on investment to Softbank Vision Fund. Catherine
Lenson, Managing Partner, CHRO & Head of Social Impact, Softbank Vision
Fund, said Softbank Vision Fund in not an impact investment fund, adding,
“However, what has been interesting for me to watch is the sheer number of
commercial investments we have made, have been made into businesses which
we believe will have a positive impact on the world and climate.”
Kara Helander, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, Carlyle Group,
believes that ESG metrics create tangible values in investment. Helander stated
that Carlyle has 250 portfolio companies, adding, “We set goals: having 30% of
board members in portfolio companies to be diverse by 2023, and we are
tracking it.” She continued, saying that Carlyle supports both their employees
and employees in portfolio companies who want to take concrete actions to
make the world more equitable and inclusive.
This Bloomberg roundtable was Proudly Sponsored By
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