Business-For-Purpose Pioneer Awarded Order of Australia

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Audette Exel, founder and Chair of The Adara Group, has been awarded an honorary Order of Australia for her work with women and children living in extreme poverty in Nepal and Uganda. Exel established The Adara Group 18 years ago after witnessing appalling conditions in Humla, in the Himalayas, and in the Nakaseke district of Uganda.

Since then, the Foundation has raised AUD$21.9 million for life-saving education, health care and infrastructure in both countries. Exel, who was Telstra NSW Businesswoman of the Year in 2012, said she was honoured and humbled to receive the award, which was announced by the Governor-General Quentin Bryce. The award is for service to humanity. “The Adara Group is the product of the dreams and hard work of thousands of people, and it has been a privilege to work with all of them. This work has enhanced my world beyond measure,” said Exel. “In my lucky life, I have worked with extraordinary people in the developing world who are almost always unsung heroes. For me, this award recognises of all those people.”

Before establishing The Adara Group, Exel worked as a banker and lawyer in Australia and Bermuda, where she was Managing Director of the Bermuda Commercial Bank and Chair of the Bermuda Stock Exchange. She is one of the youngest women in the world to have run a publicly traded bank. She was also on the Board of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, where her signature graced Bermuda’s $5 note.

New Zealand-born Exel is a pioneer in the business-for-purpose field, setting up a unique partnership between a non-profit foundation and an Australian corporate finance business, which advises companies on large international transactions and raises money for global fund managers. All profits go to The Adara Group to cover running costs, meaning every dollar from donors around the world goes directly to projects on the ground. The finance side of the business has provided AUD$7 million in funding for The Adara Group, which supports more than 30,000 people each year.

“I spent years advantaging the advantaged. Now The Adara Group advantages the disadvantaged,” said Exel. “I profoundly believe business is capable of greatness. Business can serve the whole community, not just shareholders. It is inspiring to see so many more non-profits and corporates finding creative ways to tackle poverty together. “I am delighted to be part of this evolving conversation about how business fits in the new world, and to share my mistakes and successes.“

Exel said Australia was conducting an important national debate about its responsibilities to people living in poverty. “This is when we see the best of ourselves – when we reach out to others in need. It makes us better people and a better nation,” she said.

 

Is This The World’s Most Affordable House?

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Forty percent of all energy demands comes from real estate, so if you can solve that, you will be richly rewarded. After all, the cleanest and cheapest energy is energy saved.

A zero energy house that guarantees no energy bills for 10 years is capturing the attention of communities and may redefine home ownership. “Our mission is to make every home a zero energy home, that’s smart, stronger and affordable for the masses,” says David Goswick Founder and CEO of Houze, a man on a global quest to  build the most energy efficient homes possible. In addition, he’s aiming at a $250,000 price point for his homes, making them affordable to the widest market possible. While his take on the spelling of “house” is attention grabbing, the companies full name, Houze Advanced Building Science, suggests a far more serious mission.

Goswick has even engaged scientist from NASA in the Houston area to create new technologies that change the performance of homes and transform them from energy eaters to energy generators. “Homes are the last American product to embrace the technology revolution,” says Goswick.

“With the greatest technologies the cost reduces and performance improves. With our new construction techniques, the total cost of  home ownership is now less than renting an apartment,” says  Goswick. “In addition, our houses are stronger, safer and more durable.”

In 1983 Goswick started a public relations and marketing firm.  Interests rates were sky-high and the economy had nose-dived. The turbulent times gave Goswick a chance to experiment, and he learned how to steer his company through the most difficult of times. Three years later he noticed his clients were starting to  outperform their competitors and the firm won some marketing  awards.

American General Life Insurance, one of the biggest master plan developers in America, approached them on one of their largest projects with the president of the company asking Goswick what he could do to improve a community in West Houston. Goswick’s innovative thinking and initial success soon saw him representing all their developments across the U.S.

Nothing focuses the mind like a great recession, and the real estate market collapse of 2008 was a major setback for Goswick. The subsequent years of market turmoil caused Goswick to pause and reassess what real estate was all about, and more importantly, what problem could he solve that could become the next big thing. He identified low energy homes, buildings and communities as being the future and realized that if he could accelerate this trend by five or ten years it would be a powerful catalyst for change.

He rethought everything he knew and struggled to come up with an alternative way of building a home. Eventually the idea of Houze was born, the result of Goswick working with some brilliant minds in the real estate, energy and space industries. The “ze” of Houze stands for zero-emmission, and that’s exactly what Goswick

eventually revealed to the world – a house with no energy bills.Houze integrates disruptive technologies into real estate developments and buildings, and has launched a first-of-its-kind, affordable, zero-energy home into the U.S. market. Houze construction costs are about 10% higher than conventional homes, but the energy savings make homeownership cheaper.

“I needed to clarify our product and our mission,” says Goswick. “Our idea was to make every house zero energy and self sufficient. This was a big goal and we decided to start small with an Under-serviced area. We found a suburb called Independence Heights, just outside Houston, that was perfect for this purpose.

Realizing that similar communities to Independence Heights existed across the U.S. inspired Goswick to make his first test area a success. “If we could make it work here, our idea could move anywhere,” says Goswick. “Houze is completely revolutionizing the way homes are built, how they consume and generate energy and the overall total cost of ownership,” says Goswick. “Our approach of combining durable, efficient building materials, innovative energy management systems, advanced energy-saving and storing technologies are fundamentally redefining the American Dream,” he says.

The original homes at Independence Heights involved consultation with the community on suitable architectural styles and even what constitutes good community leadership. To keep the character of the area, some of the Houze buildings look as if they were built 70 years ago. The idea is not to restyle a suburb, but rather to work with it.

Bloomberg TV called Goswick earlier this year and told him they had identified Houze as one of only a handful of companies globally that had the potential to reinvent the home. A home, of course, has hundreds of components and building materials and it was natural that companies related to construction, fittings and finishings would come knocking on the Houze door.

Leaders in the building, technology and energy industries are already showing their support, resulting in an impressive coalition of strategic brands. Some partners include AT&T, Carrier, CHASE, James Hardie, Pella, Murff Turff, and the American Gas Association.

Together they are helping  Houze accelerate the transformation of the residential and commercial building industry, from being one of the largest consumers of energy, to zero energy ones, leaving a near zero carbon footprint on the environment. AT&T has implemented their Digital Life product into Houze homes, a wireless-based home security and automation service that enables users to access, monitor, and effortlessly control devices in their home using a smartphone, tablet or PC.

Natural gas has been identified as a core energy source of the new Houze homes and Goswick is working closely with The American Gas Association, that already pipes gas to 71 million residential and commercial customers. Most people don’t realize that natural gas already meetsalmost one-fourth of the United States’ energy needs.

Goswick is seeking manufactures who will design household appliances that tie into the new technology he has created in his homes. “We’d love to have a line of appliances that work with the way we’re building these homes,” he says. “We’re bringing together every building and technology relationship we’re aware of to create something new.” Building manufacturers and system developers from around the world are approaching Goswick with ideas on how to integrate their products with Houze. Instead of seeing them as competition, Goswick says, “Bring it on!”

“The numbers are staggering when you realize the implications for both energy and financial savings,” says Goswick.

“One of my key strategies is to promote the category of energy sustainability, ratherthan just my business, as this new category promotes national and energy security and helps avoid global conflicts over oil.”

Goswick believes that by becoming a central player in developing new energy alternatives, he will benefit regardless. “We’re the friend of any company that is innovative, wants to reduce their carbon footprint, and delivers energy independence,” says Goswick.

The trademarked Houze Power Cell is the heart of the new homes and produces both on-site electricity and thermal heat from 100 percent natural gas. Unlike traditional renewable energy technologies, which are intermittent, the natural gas power cell provides reliable power 24/7. Roughly the size of a traditional air conditioning unit, the power cell generates more energy than the home requires, using natural gas. This surplus is then stored in back-up batteries and sold back to the electricity grid, providing increased energy security for the homeowner and offsetting the cost of the natural gas.

The Home Energy Rating System (HERS) is used to measure efficiency. Typical American homes have a HERS rating of 130, with the government-backed Energy Star program requiring a rating of 85 to gain accreditation. Houze homes currently have a HERS rating of 44 (the lower, the better), based on the structure alone. With the addition of the power cell and advanced heating and cooling technologies, Houze homes will ultimately achieve a HERS rating of 0.

These construction, energy and technology advancements lead to discounts and incentives from leading mortgage and insurance companies, including reduced mortgage rates and down payment assistance, as well as significant insurance discounts, ranging from 40 to 70 percent. In addition to these third-party incentives, Houze also provides homeowners with a world first – the Zero Energy Warranty, guaranteeing no electricity or gas payments for the first 10 years of home ownership. Building a Houze home cost around 10 percent more than an average home, but the energy savings quickly make up for it.

Presently, where things all began a year ago, at Independence Heights, Houze is busy construction ten new homes, each using a different advanced building system and eight of them using different power sources. “It’s like a laboratory out there at the moment,” says Goswick. “The data here will help consumers make more informed decisions.

Back in 2008, during the housing crisis many people who bought houses had no idea of the hidden energy costs of running a home. By cutting these cost, and even allowing owners to sell power back to the grid, it changes the entire value of their asset.”

Goswicks 20 staff are running, “A living laboratory of advancement,”as he put’s it. Scaling the business through alliances with global partners and local builders will gradually create more demand for Houze homes as people realize the cost effectiveness and savings. Goswick feels that his personal journey in life has been more rewarding than his days as a marketing executive. “It’s the opportunity to apply all I’ve learned over the last 30 years and makea positive impact on lives,” says Goswick. “Improving  national security through energy independence would be a great legacy to leave behind.”

 

Will.i.am Talks Trash

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Hip hop celebrity Will.i.am has approached leading brands and offered them solutions on how not to let waste go to waste.

Most music fans are accustomed to seeing their favorite celebrity walking around with the obligatory plastic water bottle glued to their hands. It’s almost become a fashion accessory for some and has been adopted like wildfire among millions of young followers. While the focus has always been on the music and   lavish lifestyles, no-one has really given the plastic water bottle a second thought.

Post-consumer waste of plastic has reached endemic proportions. According to the U.S. Environmental protection Agency, 32 million tons of plastic waste was generated in 2011, with only 8 percent of this amount recovered for recycling. There are few global superstars who get anywhere close to the world of corporate sustainability. But Will.i.am, founder of the hugely successful band The Black Eyed Peas and the director of creative innovation at Intel, is on a mission after recognising that the world is threatened by a combination of population growth, resource scarcity, climate change and over-consumption.

Rather than fall into the traditional celebrity trap of being used by companies to sell even more products in exchange for a multi-million dollar check, Will.i.am decided to approach a few well-known brands with his own solution, the EKOCYCLE project.

Will.i.am has always composed music with a social conscience, now he’s turned that focus onto the damage we’re doing to the environment by discarding our plastic waste. His EKOCYCLE initiative has collaborated with The Coca-Cola Company and other iconic brands to help inspire a global movement that will help identify plastic bottles that can be converted into what he calls “aspirational goods.”

To keep it appealing to the young and trendy music crowd, these goods include Levi’s jeans, Case-mate smartphone cases, Beats by Dr. Dre headphones and New Era baseball caps. While Will.i.am has lent his enormous celebrity influence to the venture, Coca Cola has also made a $1 million commitment to EKOCYCLE over the next five years. The stand-alone brand is dedicated to helping encourage recycling behavior and sustainability among consumers.

“With the EKOCYCLE brand, I’m on a mission to educate and inspire consumers around the globe to seek out more sustainable lifestyle choices,” says Will.i.am. “This will ultimately play a part in the movement toward a world with zero waste.

By making products that contain recycled materials more attractive to both businesses and consumers, everyone can do their part to keep the cycle going to turn discarded waste into cool, new items,” he says. The 38 year-old, worth $75 million should know a thing or two about creating cool.

Beyond his popular music talents, he counts entrepreneur, actor, DJ, record producer and philanthropist among his many passions. He is also the founder of i.am angel, a non-profit dedicated to “transforming lives through education, opportunity and inspiration.” In an interview, the performer once said “I hope none of the kids I send to school only want to do music. The world doesn’t need another musician. They need another Bill Gates.” As self-depreciating as he is, Will.i.am cannot deny that popular culture and music can disrupt the way we work and think for the better, as does technology. Educating consumers about everyday recycling choices and helping to empower their purchasing decisions is part of a social change movement that has been going on for a decades.

While green and eco-friendly initiatives have been around since the 1960s, people like Will.i.am have realized that the power of influence from someone in the glare of celebrity, can fast-track behaviour change among consumers, and much faster than handing out flyers at the supermarket.

By plugging environmental awareness directly into mainstream culture, he has prevented the issue from becoming just another government or NGO campaign, with it’s inevitable image failure. Will.i.am felt there was a need for a unifying campaign, with attractive branding, under which recycled products could be promoted to consumers. Combining trash with fashionable items might sound like a risky business venture, but it’s working, and has attracted the next wave of consumer looking to support a cause.

Traditionally, goods made from recycled materials have been ugly and undermined by insufficient funding, but that’s changing. One of EKOCYCLE’s key products, Beats by Dr. Dre headphones, for example, are made from 31 percent recycled material, yet have become one of the most desirable and coolest headsets around.

This “fashion for the ears” accessory, with its distinctive “b” on the earcups sold nearly $500 million worth of recycled product in 2012. Will.i.am feels that recyclable materials such as plastic and metal are “waste,” because we have wasted an opportunity to turn them into something.

“An empty plastic water bottle doesn’t have to necessarily be turned into another water bottle,” says Will.i.am. “It could be turned into jeans or a watch.” Young, switched-on consumers are beginning to recognize that items they consider waste today may become part of a lifestyle product they can use tomorrow. Will.i.am hopes this will encourage a demand for recycled materials, and reinforce the importance of  creating finished products from recycled material. Ultimately, recycled waste needs to be promoted and marketed, just like any other product.

Today’s generation of young consumers represents an active economic force and the EKOCYCLE brand aims to be a driver in rallying their support around a global sustainability movement. The Coca-Cola Company shares this vision and together they are working with local communities worldwide to showcase the greater value of recycling, rather than discarding.

Another partner, Earth911, host of the largest recycling directory in the U.S., listing more than 1.5 million ways to recycle, will provide an interactive and searchable recycling directory for consumers, accessible at the EKOCYCLE website. “Recycling is one of the easiest sustainable actions consumers can take,” says Raquel Fagan, vice president of media for Earth911. “But without real-time access to local options, people are often left confused and frustrated. The EKOCYCLE brand initiative takes a forward-thinking approach and demonstrates how companies can play a role in eliminating this confusion and empowering consumers.”

Will.i.am’s interest in sustainability was first sparked in 2008 when he attended the Clinton Global Initiative where he learned that the world population would reach 9 billion people by 2042. His first reaction was to wonder how everyone would be fed, given the finite resources on the planet.

A while later, after one of his concerts he saw the aftermath of waste from people who had attended and realized that he too was part of the system. He also realized he could be part of the solution too. Having always looked at other companies and criticized them for bad practices, Will.i.am decided that finger pointing and complaining was not the solution. He determined to come up with a creative solution that would influence people’s behaviour.

By tapping into popular brands, and offering them a sustainable alternative, Will.i.am now has a strategic partnership with Levi EKOCYCLE jeans, Adidas EKOCYCLE shoes and EKOCYCLE NBA. His goal is to have an EKOCYCLE day for every team and hopes it will spread from the NBA to the MLB, FIFA and NFL, to start educating people in the inner cities, and around the world.

The typical sponsorship arrangement with celebrities sees a brand approach them to promote their product. Will.i.am has flipped this arrangement on its head, with him approaching the brands.

He’s of the opinion that celebrities know they will be approached at some point by major brands, and should rather choose in advance how they’d like to interact with them. Most celebrities are short-sighted in their business dealings, looking only at short-term profit or having their manager structure the deal, who might only look at what percent they’ll get.

The potential for earning more exists when a celebrity proactively presents an idea to a brand. In Will.i.am’s case, he has created an entirely new company that is sustainable.

Musicians are usually more in touch with their fan base, which can border on a two-way conversation at concerts. They are uniquely positioned to sense the mood and desires of the people who have bought into their music and the accompanying lifestyles.

Most brands sit in an office and analyze data to make their decisions, and sometimes miss one of the crucial elements of advertising – emotion. The emerging, young market of global consumers is no longer satisfied with just buying something, they want a story behind it, and one that is making a difference to a person, community or piece of land somewhere in the world.

Will.i.am says we’ve designed a system where if you purchase something, it breaks, and then you throw it away. “I know this is what America was built on: planned obsolescence, but that system is not sustainable, so we have to start thinking about what the next system is going to be.”

Companies built this version of the world and they should change it, says Will.i.am.

“Companies have been made powerful by people and people should realize they have the power to change them. In the past, people who were powerful were born into power, but tomorrow’s power people can come from having had nothing 20 years ago.”

 

The Way The Cookie Crumbles

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Wendy Ruiz Cofiño has turned her creativity and technology into solutions for real life problems.

If you where to learn that one of the top apps of the last ten years to be honored by the United Nations World Summit Award was not from Palo Alto, but from Guatemala, would you be surprised? Many are, when they discover that a digital and marketing agency MilknCookies, run by founder Wendy Ruiz Cofiño, is behind the educational app for kids called Mini Mundi (Little World), an educational game that teaches kids about recycling (shown above).

The app is already in use in classrooms across Spain with many teachers using it as a teaching aid. The kids in class learn while playing and many times are unaware of the positive, subliminal messages that are suggested to them about caring for their planet. The game consists of a round, bubbly, “baby” earth, full of life and bright green. Kids need to care and nurture Mini Mundi and follow daily tasks. If Mini Mundi is neglected, the world starts to develop real enemies and turns grey, sad and unhappy.

The idea for the game came about when Cofiño was working with one of the largest recycling companies in Spain.

“A problem they had was the great cost they had to pay to reclassifying all the waste they received,” says Cofiño. “People didn’t know what color-coded bins to use for disposing their waste. We came up with an idea to educate kids, because as we all know, when a kids gets to know something, their father is sure to hear about it too.”

Cofiño is a firm believer that future generations should be adequately prepared to go out into the world and take care of it. She also believes that parents need to know it too, and become part of the solution. Most children in Guatemala go to school as part of a normal school program, but many found it impossible and unsustainable to learn many topics in the curriculum. The idea of the digital platform came about and became a great success.

“Mini Mundi has won many awards and has become a showpiece for us to promote our message about the environment. The app proves that real life problems can be solved through technology,” says Cofiño.

Much of the other work produced by MilknCookies follows a similar path. Not content to just produce creative solutions for clients, the agency believes in helping to change the world for the better.

Cofiño came from a world of tech development and software platforms, surrounded by people pursuing digital solutions. She found it boring and knew that she wanted to be different, to stand out from the crowd. Four years ago she embarked on a new identity for her venture.

“We wanted a name that was not related at all to the tech industry,” says Cofiño. “We also wanted it to be something that appealed to non-tech marketing managers, still involved in traditional media. Yes, the name MilknCookies is a funny one, and was mostly chosen to acknowledge that many people we would deal with would not understand everything we suggested to them,” explains Cofiño. But when clients feel they’re not understood or are frustrated, we’re going to become that place from your childhood, at your Grandmother’s house, getting milk and cookies, as if to say ‘everything’s going to be alright.’

“We know we’re the generation that can change the world, that can make a difference,” says Cofiño. “In short, what we try and convey to our customers and  the people around us is that you can create the greatest apps or the greatest creative work, and it doesn’t matter if you’re in Guatemala, because you can let the world know about it. That’s the great thing about technology – it has no international borders. When we speak at universities and institutions we try and steer away from saying that we only do websites, apps and content. We try and inspire others to see the global possibilities.”

Many young Guatemalans invite MilknCookies to talk to them because they have achieved international exposure, and people like to see that.

It gives them hope, that they too can achieve the same. “We’re trying to be contagious,” explains Cofiño, with a touch of humor.

Guatemala is a mere 40,000 square miles with a population of around 13 million. This sense of geographic intimacy is played out in the offices of MilknCookies everyday, with staff and clients. “Every single day, we try and establish a relationship with our clients, to let them know that we’re doing the best we can.  In addition to doing our respective jobs, and making money from our customers, we’re also interested in promoting good. Good things can take our country out of poverty, and change it from being a dangerous place,” says Cofiño.

MilknCookies have shown people that if you believe in what you do, and do it well, that you can become whatever you want to be. Cofiño started the business by sharing one desk between them and because they were passionate about what they wanted to do they’ve now become a globally recognized  company.

When Cofiño went to the World Summit Awards to be honored for being one of the eight best digital developments of the decade, it was very emotional for her. “For us it was an award for the whole country, not only for MilknCookies, and that’s how we communicated it to everyone, and in all our interviews,” says Cofiño.

She also believes that if you want to attract investment for a country, the focus should not only be on MilknCookies for their great work, but also on the people of Guatemala.

Proving to the rest of the world that they exist, can find great tech development, great design and responsible people who are fluent in English is something Cofiño wants the world to know about.

With the business thriving from a winning recipe of social and environmental awareness, Cofiño has developed a new business unit called MilknCookies Recipes. Here the team makes business assessments of their customers and try and make them socially aware. Cofiño strongly believes that her generation is focused on issues beyond just being familiar with companies, brands and products. When a brand campaign is launched and they’re fully aware that they need to talk to people as if the brand is a real person.

“You need to show them what good you’re doing in the world,” says Cofiño.  This aspect is integrated into our assessments all the time. We try and build a consciousness into the companies we work with. If a consumer can buy something that is, at the same time, creating good for the environment, the world and the community, they will buy it for sure.

“We are fond of using the example of TOMS shoes, the socially inspired shoe with a purpose, that has sold over 10 million pairs worldwide. They’re not very nice to look at, they’re not very fashionable, but everybody wants them. This is the idea that we try and put into each of our customers minds. If they’re not doing something good – they need to start,” asserts Cofiño.

As a creative agency of 45 people, MilknCookies need to bill their clients, like any other business, to stay profitable and to create these social strategies for their clients, but have found it impossible not to become a part of it themselves.

They also explain to their clients that looking good is only one part of the campaign, they need to believe it too.

Other ingredients in the MilknCookies recipe include storytelling. A good, social story is considered a key part of any campaign and included in any strategy. Cofiño has yet to hear a customer say they don’t want to implement it.

“Many companies we work with have some great stories, which would help them grab attention in the market,” says Cofiño. “Yet many don’t want to communicate these stories, because it feels like they’re trying to be pompous, and they don’t want to look that way.

We create a look for them that allows them to feel comfortable enough to communicate their stories.  We spend much time studying the younger generation. They care about far more than you’d imagine and we try and communicate with them as a priority. You need to prove to them that you’re doing something else, aside from just selling them a pair of jeans.”

MilknCookies have also been collaborating with Wakami, a social enterprise that markets products from the rural areas in Guatemala. Indigenous, and largely uneducated, women create bracelets, necklaces and accessories for sale in a network of Wakami shops around the world, even reaching the shelves of a Ralph Lauren store. Wakami educates the women on how to make the items and  also educates them on ways in which they can educate their kids.

MilknCookies have been working with Wakami on developing strategies for content and promoting their products, but in the process, learned a lot themselves. Cofiño and her team are getting paid to help Wakami and they’re in turn getting paid to help other people.

“Wakami have changed entire communities,” says Cofiño.  “The women work together and the money they earn, they put into schools. A couple of years ago, they even had their first generation of graduate students.

Cofiño has clearly developed a winning recipe with MilknCookies.

 

Adapt or Fail – Why 70% of Your Team Isn’t Committed to Your Success

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Whenever you work really, really hard and fail, it is because you’re missing something. Usually it’s reality. It is tempting to deny that anything has changed. Or that you need to know something that you don’t. Or that others aren’t inspired by the same things you are. Or that you’re going to have to take responsibility for things you don’t want to. The list goes on. There are countless reasons to deny the real reasons we are failing. So we wait.

We wait for things to get back to normal. Well, things are not going to go back to normal because something really, really big has changed. It is a revolution of epic proportion. It is simply this.

Anyone can know anything, instantly. 

In the last five years, access to knowledge through smartphones enables almost everyone to know anything they want to know within minutes. I frequently tell my career classes that anyone can become an expert in a specific field within six months. 

Hell, you can become more knowledgeable about a certain topic than 80% of people in three weeks. All you need to do is spend 20 minutes a day with a search engine on the Internet watching videos, reading articles, or searching the research. Want to become knowledgeable about 3D printing, how to finance a business, what makes a happy marriage, how to surf, garden, play the guitar, write a book, write code, manage a project, meditate, or quantum physics? It’s all there.

And there’s more. You can connect with people who are interested in the same things you are very, very easily. I know, you’ve heard versions of these breakthroughs incessantly. This is hardly new news.

But what is new is the radical impact these things are having on businesses and organizations of all types.

And radial is not too strong a word. Consider this. The invention of the printing press in 1450 was the beginning of the end of the dark ages. Remember the dark ages were really dark. In many places, human beings took a step back in terms of their calling in life and even life expectancy. For instance, in Roman times indoor plumbing, clean water and municipal sewage systems were common.

In the dark ages, people threw their crap out the window. Only 1% of Europeans could read or write the year the printing press was inventing. 50 years later, 50% of Europeans were literate. This democratization of knowledge spurred new questions and massive curiosity. The grip of the Catholic Church on people’s thinking violently conflicted with the Protestant Reformation.

The age of world exploration was born and the Renaissance flourished. The philosophers of the Enlightenment created new models of thinking about individual rights and human potential, and led to modern democracies, explosive growth in university education and the scientific method. Okay, that was a big change. Now, imagine that kind of world shaking change happening in a very compressed timeframe. That’s what’s going on. In my work, I see it being played out every day in the area of business. It shows up in tow powerful palaces… leadership and culture.

I think we should face the fact that most of our efforts at leadership development have failed. 

Although billions have been invested over the last 50 years and tens of thousands of books written to promote better leadership, there is virtually no evidence that leaders are any better today than they were five decades ago. When I ask business audiences today how many great leaders they have enjoyed working for over their careers, the highest number I get is two. That’s exactly the same number of audiences were giving me 35 years ago when I started working with Stephen Covey. Perhaps that’s not because developing great leaders is futile, but rather because the challenges of leadership are expanding faster than our ability to help leaders improve.

And, I’m convinced the gap between what’s needed and what’s happening is getting worse. 

It is because the technology and social revolution has changed the way value is created, work gets done and they very nature of the workforce. Here are the main points.

1. Organizational hierarchies are relics of the industrial age.

They are in the way of success. They are designed to maximize the productivity of routine work and minimize risk. When General McChrystal took over the Special Forces command nearly a decade ago it took 96 hours to plan a special operation. Within two years he was able to reduce that time to 20 minutes. He did it by converting the Special Forces command from a hierarchy to a network. Leading networks is a very different skill set than leading a chain of command. And most current business leaders are very, very bad at leading networks.

2. Competence is measured by strategic velocity.

That is the speed at which strategy is decided upon and executed. Most leaders today are still relying on PowerPoints and annual planning cycles. That is leadership malpractice. Today there is a huge gulf between what must be done and what gets done.

3. To be competent, leaders must open-minded enough to constantly evolve strategy and agile enough to stay engaged in the details of execution.

This requires the expertise to create strategy that is responsive to constantly changing trends, opportunities and threats and the social intelligence to work with teams of people as a peer to execute it. (Steve Jobs was an emperor in terms of strategy. But he was a teammate in product development meetings.) In my experience most leaders don’t have a clue on how to do this.

4. The workforce is changed.

Not just millennial’s… everyone. Employees used to give their best efforts because they had the security of long-term employment. They also felt they had a stake in the organization’s long-term success. No more. Research reveals that 80% of employed people constantly search the Internet for a better job. Global surveys that determine the level of commitment employees have to their employer’s success reveal that 70% are not very committed. This is unsustainable. For a network to thrive people must be focused, creative, collaborative and absolutely committed to results. Creating that requires number 5.

5. Human purpose is not optional. Since virtually all employees feel like they are simply hired guns it is impossible to create high-performing teams without genuine shared purpose. Survival and success on their own are not shared purpose. Shared purpose is working together to improve the quality of life of customers’ in a distinct way.

This is not just corporate social responsibility. It is not simply sustainability. It must be your reason for being in business. Real value-driving-purpose has to be at the core of an organization’s money making business model. Haley Rushing of the Purpose Institute recently shared their research with me. It’s simple.

Clear purpose drives:

    • Innovation, product development, pricing, brand, culture, advertising, hiring, technology investment, market segmentation, supply chain management… everything.
    • Purpose makes hard decisions easier and faster.
    • Most important, human purpose connects people directly with their job and the enterprise. It increases commitment and reduces friction.
    • Purpose is the inspirational glue that keeps networks working at very high rates of innovation execution.

6. You have to know what the hell you doing. Leaders must have extremely high levels of business acumen and competence. Purpose is no substitute for competence. Passion alone can put you out of business faster because you mistake your good intentions for good outcomes.

That’s my brief explanation of why old models don’t work, employees are disengaged and once great enterprises will fail if they are not lead in radically new ways. The good news is there are lots of people interested in this new way of leading and working. I hope you are.

 

The Rise of the Human Age

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Jeff Joerres has identified a new era that will put unprecedented value on talent as the main driver of business success, forcing governments and business leaders to re-examine how they leverage human potential in an increasingly volatile world. 

At a time when the average tenure of a public company CEO is typically measured in months rather than decades, you have to wonder how it could be that the current CEO of ManpowerGroup was only the 3rd CEO in 65 years. Joerres has a playful, fun attitude about him, an unexpected characteristic in someone who deals in global workforce solutions and the accompanying frustration that must exist in the currently volatile labor markets.

He leads a $21 billion Fortune 500 company that has been around since 1948 and which uses words such as “unleashing human potential” and he eschews the way some competitors  refer to people in need of jobs as “inventory”. In 2012 ManpowerGroup connected 3.4 million people to opportunities and purpose, helping more than 400,000 companies meet their business objectives. They have grown from a single office in Milwaukee to 3,500 offices in 80 countries, and this global perspective has recently had Joerres declare a new era for humanity – The Human Age.

“Previous eras were defined first by the raw materials that transformed them: stone, iron and bronze,” says Joerres. “Then they were characterized by the domains people conquered with ever-improving technology: industry, space and information. Now, it will be human potential itself that will be the catalyst for change and the global driving force economically, politically and socially.”

This long-term, big picture view of business seems a good fit with ManpowerGroup, that can boast a grand total of three CEO’s in its history; in a time when the lifespan of a typical CEO is measured in months rather than decades. A clue to the current success of Joerres is that he’s big on optimizing human potential, and believes that it will be the single most important determinant of future business success and growth in the future. Yet, how does a company trade in human capital on such a large scale, and still nurture individual aspirations?

“Everybody brings their personal backgrounds into a job,” explains Joerres. This can be sanitized to a degree, based on what a company allows or what’s possible under different corporate circumstances.” A clue to the empathy and sense of service to others, that Joerres has instilled at ManpowerGroup, might be found in his own background.

Raised in a classic working class family, his father worked three jobs and his mother worked two. Yet his father still found time to paint the local convent on the weekends and take food to people who couldn’t get out, creating a clear role model for his son in later life. Back then you’d call this volunteer work, today people have created whole businesses around it. Joerres was the first in his family to ever enroll in a university.

It was pretty clear from the start that it was going to be tough going. Without any close relationship with his peers, Joerres felt lost and made some mistakes. This led to him groping his way through a series of institutions, continually seeking one in which he felt right. One morning, his dorm roommate at the time, suggested that he take on part-time work at IBM installing typewriters. Unknown to Joerres, this was to become the start of his career. The next few months were filled with instructing secretaries (as they were called then) on how to use one-line memory, the backspace key and correction tape when making an error.

This developed into coaching office workers on display writers, the original word processors, and by the time Joerres graduated, IBM had offered him a job. This break gave him the ability to get up to speed quickly in business, but most significantly, IBM gave him an account to manage in 1982: ManpowerGroup. As the display writer started fading and the PC emerged, that offered early document management such as WordPerfect and other revolutionary software, ManpowerGroup came up with a concept that Joerres helped refine. The company would train secretaries to use the new computer software, installed in each of their offices around the world, in weekly cycles, while filling their positions with temporary help for that week. Your job was covered and you learned new skills, a win-win situation that added to your value in the marketplace.

“It gave me a real sense of how important ongoing training is in a company, and how important learning is,” recalls Joerres.  “While I sold an awful lot of hardware, went to fun places to attend IBM award ceremonies, the real impact for me was how much this new approach meant to so many people. I saw first-hand how employees were shown how to survive the barrage of new technology of the time, as well as how a company has a duty of keeping people trained and employed.”

Joerres recognized the value of staying close to ManpowerGroup and when he left IBM for his own start-up a few years later, he asked the CEO of the time, Mitchell Fromstein, to sit on his board, to which Fromstein agreed. Two years later, in 1993, he approached Fromstein for a position at ManpowerGroup that saw him run sales and marketing and then become senior vice president of European Operations. Finally, in 1999, Joerres was named CEO of ManpowerGroup, the same company that had struck such a deep chord with him as a young, part-time worker at university. Almost 15 years later Joerres still marvels at company co-founder Elmer Winter, who remained at the ManpowerGroup head office up until his death at age 97.

Fromstein, too, passed away in early November this year, having been CEO from 1976 to 1999. “I recall discussing with Winter why he founded the company in 1948 and we’d talk about our long history of showing people that work is honorable, and about the big role we’ve played in bringing honor to people’s lives,” says Joerres. This honor has grown recently to include presentations on employment by Joerres at The World Economic Forum and the G20 Leaders’ Summit. “Our ability to train, place and put people in the right jobs, allowing them to take a paycheck home, put it on the table in front of their family and say, ‘We can eat today’ is still a big part of our business.”

The company also has $250 dollar an hour software developers who are certainly not concerned about having enough to eat for the day – more like “hey, we can buy a new vacation home today” – but the idea of finding people honorable work still applies. “We’re a New York Exchange stock company, and of course we need to make money,” says Joerres. “We make money to create flexibility for ourselves, but we don’t do that at the expense of our mission.”

The mission can sometimes create contention within the company, as demonstrated by some employees who will interview a candidate for two hours, knowing full well that there is no job for them. The sense of duty, responsibility and honor and that they must find someone a job runs deep, and many employees continually fight an internal battle between hope, and the reality of a situation.

“We don’t want to turn things into a conveyor belt,” notes Joerres. “We don’t’ have to engage people at the expense of who they are. We coach people, we train people, and we bring them into a better life. In a world where unemployment and youth unemployment are at the forefront of many economies, our mission has served us well. When Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) came into fashion, we didn’t know what it was, but we were already doing it. At the time, we just called it ‘that’s what we do.’ When we finally wrote our first CSR report, we were pretty proud of ourselves,” beams Joerres.

After the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, Joerres took an entirely different approach to aiding the affected countries. Rather than rush in as a first reliever, he looked at his company’s strengths, and beyond the disaster, to future needs.

“We weren’t going to try and be first on the scene, because that’s not what we do. We didn’t have much money to donate as we’re thin on margins, and that’s also not us. We weren’t simply going to give a million dollars to Southern India and say our obligation is done,” says Joerres. Joerres realized that after the tsunami there was going to be a great need for skills, and jobs. This was ManpowerGroup’s strength and the management team rolled up their sleeves and spent the next five months developing an action plan.

The result was the establishment of two schools in the Indian coastal state of Tamil Nadu, that is still the most productive school in the state. The first women masons have come from the school and the town has gone from a fishing community to a commercial one. “It’s more about brains than brawn.” Explains Joerres. “It’s about building muscle in communities. We’ve done this in the U.S. through our Techreach program, we have a disabled program, and we’ve taken women out of prostitution in Mexico and into secretarial work. Some of these initiatives come with hazards, but our staff want to do it.

I sometimes have to remind people that we’re not an NGO, but a mission-based company that can still make a lot of money.” 

As many executives know, many companies can talk a good story at a corporate level, but their compensation structure still leaves something to be desired. While company policy asks them to act in a certain way, their compensation is telling them to behave differently. Joerres has implemented the Power Award at ManpowerGroup, the highest award at the company, which cannot be won by just hitting the numbers.

A combination of sustainability, community and numbers will help you on your way to this award, which is clearly stated in writing in company policy documents. 10-20% of all bonus compensation is discretionary based on community building success. That’s putting your money where your mouth is! One of the most common challenges for a founder is not being able to let go to allow a successor to step in. Joerres has company co-founder Winter to thank for guidance on this.

“He never spoke about the business, about our margins or why we opened an office in Abu Dhabi, for instance. All he cared about was trying to find people jobs. While he never left the office until the day he died, he stayed out of the business. When he spoke at an event he would always talk about why he founded the business, never about our gross profit. When I took over from Mitchell Fromstein, who’d been here for over 20 years, all we ever talked was the health and soul of the company, not how I’m handling squeezed margins,” says Joerres.

Being only the third CEO of ManpowerGroup in 65 years has allowed Joerres a rare opportunity to make wise decisions based on the long term and to realize his career wasn’t going to be a flash in the pan. Figuring out how to jack up the stock valuation, make millions and cash out with an early exit is not in his game plan.

“I’m not an imperial leader and being a custodian of the brand and of the company DNA makes you think differently about the moves you’re going to make,” says Joerres. When the economic meltdown of 2008 hit, Joerres was moved when some staff offered to work for free, simply to keep the team intact.

“I read those emails and realized that I had a different responsibility, other than simply cutting costs. I had a trust that had been built up with people that you couldn’t just axe.

So I re-enforced their behavior, and they re-enforced my behavior. We’ve now developed a symbiotic relationship between our 3,000 offices in 80 countries.” A new term that Joerres has recently coined is “talent sustainability.” His participation in global conferences around the theme of youth unemployment has allowed him to see the interdependency of the talent pipeline between communities, businesses and governments.

“The way we look at talent sustainability is that if it’s good for both ourselves and the community, then it’s got to be really good, so we’ll step it up. We’ve become thought leaders and known for building and sustaining talent, which means, of course, that we can keep the conversation going around ourselves, and attract new business opportunities.” Providing free online training for around 10 million people a year also helps to keep the conversation going around ManpowerGroup.

A training and development portal on their website allows people to submit a resume and begin training. You might find yourself working with an NGO, such as the school in Tamil Nadu, or simply learning another language. Joerres’s view is that they’re building a workforce, with candidates now being able to charge $2 an hour more for the additional skills they’ve learned.

They might get $1.90 from it and ManpowerGroup might get 10c from this deal, but multiply that by 3.4 million new employees and the numbers start stacking up. “If you hold dear something that is important and needs to grow, mature and be cultivated, you automatically have a long term view,” says Joerres.

“If you have a vision or mission statement written by some Harvard Graduate, and the rest is all about the numbers, you have a problem.

I’ve never mentioned the stock price of ManpowerGroup in the 15 years of delivering an employee message. I talk about earnings, performance and good performance,” explains Joerres. All this is helping Joerres attract and retain the best talent. Displaying what they stand for gives potential employees a sense of security and expectancy of how well they’ll fit into company culture.

The current trend of young people seeking socially minded employers with a clear future vision has also played into ManpowerGroup’s favor. At no point are they confused about what to do with savvy Millennials, wanting to help save the planet.

“We don’t have to make up anything to appear that we have a social conscience, because the core of our business is already that,” says Joerres. “Even if you computerize everything, it’s still going to be about ‘humanly possible,’ which also happens to be our tag line. It’s still going to be about the Human Age, about putting people to work – just different kinds of work.”

Comic-Book Heroes Help Change Image of Islam

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Naif Al-Mutawa has developed a series of superheroes who’s main mission is to change perceptions and educate, while still being entertaining.

As provocative as Wonder Woman, but in an entirely different way, Batina the Hidden is a character in the hit comic book series “The 99” who is not only a Muslim girl from Yemen, but one whose outfit of choice when fighting evil is a burqa. “Most articles about Islam these days involve terrorism, so that was my challenge: How do I redefine this? The media not only reflects reality but can help change the course of reality,” said Naif Al-Mutawa, creator of “The 99,” during a speech at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity a few months ago.

“The idea was to reposition Islam not only to the West, but to Muslims themselves as well.” “The 99,” features Islam-inspired characters, based on the 99 attributes of Allah, who discover magic stones that unleash powers like superhuman strength, ability to read minds, and to teleport. And, in true super-hero style, they use these powers to fight bad guys. The comic series, which began publication in 2007 by the Teshkeel Media Group in Kuwait, is the first of its kind from the Middle East geared toward an international audience.

The characters may have Muslim names, but they represent diverse backgrounds, such as Hadya the Guide from London, a human GPS navigator, and Bari the Healer from South Africa. This year, the comic series secured distribution in its ninth language, French; a theme park has opened in Kuwait; and deals with DC Comics have been made for “The 99” to feature the likes of Superman, Batman and a fully clothed Wonder Woman.

By early next year, an animated television series based on the comic strip will be broadcast in North America, the Middle East, North Africa, parts of Europe and Asia, and eventually Australia. “When it hits TV, it will showcase one of the highest standards of animation,” Al-Mutawa, a New York-trained clinical psychologist and entrepreneur, said at the Cannes conference.

The idea of cultural crossover is one that Al-Mutawa has grown up with; as a child, his Arab Muslim conservative parents sent him to a culturally Jewish summer camp in New Hampshire by mistake in 1975. He did not realize this until later, yet continued to attend for a decade. His five boys currently spend their summers there. After earning a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Long Island University in New York and working with survivors of political torture at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, he went to business school and obtained an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Eventually, he returned to Kuwait and flirted with a few business ventures before coming up with the idea to start a comic book with Islam-inspired superheroes. Within a few months, he raised $7 million from 54 investors in eight countries. Today, the project has secured more than $40 million in financing and is expanding into an animated series. “His concept is potentially world changing,” said Elliot Polak, founder and creator of Textappeal, a British firm that provides cross-cultural marketing and advertising expertise for global companies.

“Dr. Al-Mutawa is working on rebranding, not of a product or service, but the rebranding of Islam.” His work is turning heads. At the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington in April this year, President Barack Obama singled out Al-Mutawa during a speech promoting interfaith dialogue and cross-cultural initiatives. Still, the road to success has “not all been roses,” Al-Mutawa said at the Cannes conference.

“There have been a million setbacks.” He has had to defend his ideas against a potential ban in Saudi Arabia and a fatwa by scholars in Indonesia. Of the 50 female characters in the series, Batina the Hidden is only one of five characters who wears a head scarf. In a scene from “Wham! Bam! Islam!” by the independent filmmaker Isaac Solotaroff, whose documentary on Al-Mutawa’s triumphs and struggles over the past four years will be shown on PBS in the United States in late 2013, an Indonesian university student wearing a hijab asks why the character Soora wears an immodest tank top and leaves her hair uncovered.

“I believe the purpose of this comic is to be countercultural,” she tells Al-Mutawa. “You know this is wrong, so why do you insist on doing this?” Al-Mutawa responds by telling her about a fire in a school in Riyadh two years ago when girls came running out of a school without wearing head scarves, and the morality police sent them back to the school so the fire fighters would not see them dressed immodestly. The girls burned to death in the school.

“The question here is, is Islam measured by behavior, which anyone can fake by praying or wearing a head scarf, or is it measured by values and faith?” he asks. He then emphasizes that it is dangerous to give a small percentage of people the control to define what is and isn’t Islam. “This is what will take us to hell in a handbasket, and it’s our fault if that happens, nobody else’s,” he says to the university students in the film. In another scene, Al-Mutawa is at Sabili magazine’s offices in Indonesia. Posters that decorate the walls say “Do Not Fear Al Qaeda.” As Al-Mutawa explains how “The 99” is inspired by Islam, one of the religious scholars slaps his hand on the table and says, “You can’t rewrite Islam!” In response, Al-Mutawa explains that the same virtues in Islam are shared with other faiths and that he is not attempting to rewrite any religion.

“Dr. Al-Mutawa was in control and perfectly fluent in each of these settings,” Solotaroff said in an interview this week. “He is someone who has straddled multiple worlds his whole life, so it’s not in his DNA to choose sides and as a result.” At the Cannes conference, Al-Mutawa was careful to highlight that the comic series is not purely Islamic or didactic in nature, but rather a concept inspired by the religion. He pointed to the way that other cultures have developed secular work based on religious archetypes – even Superman and Batman use storytelling elements from the Bible, he said – and yet this has not been achieved in the Muslim world.

“Until that’s done, we won’t be able to give divergent opinions and promote discussion,” he said. “What are people going to say about the Koran – they don’t like the font? The color purple used? This is a very limited scope, and my task is to fuse divergent ideas together.” And so, he uses comic books as a medium to send positive, fresh messages to youth internationally and in the region.

Toward the end of 2010, 37 percent of the Arab population was under 14 years old, which makes for about 110 million Arab preteens, according to data provided by Dubai Media City, which houses animation workshops. Jamal Al Sharif, its managing director, said, “Animation has a bigger purpose than just entertainment. The popularity of ‘The 99’ has proven that the animation industry is poised for a new leap and paved the way for grooming fresh talent and creativity in the region.” All this wasn’t an easy idea to sell a few years ago.

The Solotaroff documentary shows scenes of how Al-Mutawa, pitching the concept to investors, strengthened his case by talking about a sticker book created by an Arab businessman showing bloody scenes of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and of suicide bombers extolling the virtues of martyrdom.

This sticker book, called an “Intifada Album,” was selling to thousands of children in the West Bank. At the end of one scene, Al-Mutawa says: “My message was very clear to investors: Muslim children need new heroes.”

 

Danny Glover Confronts Chevron in Ecuador

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The famous American actor and social activist Danny Glover arrived in Ecuador yesterday where he plans to visit an area of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest were the multinational oil giant Chevron operated, and was sentenced by a local court to pay a multibillion-dollar fine for a massive environmental contamination.

Ecuador’s vice president, Jorge Glass, announced Saturday that Mr. Glover will “also submerge his hand in one of the toxic pits that Chevron left in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest”.  The actor will visit the former oil field Aguarico 4 in the northeastern province of Sucumbios. Ecuadorian officials indicate that the field was operated exclusively by Texaco and abandoned in 1986 by the company.

Chevron Acquired Texaco in 2001, along with all its liabilities. Danny Glover has gained international recognition not only for his successful artistic career, but also for his wide-reaching social and humanitarian activism, both in the United States and around the world. Mr. Glover served as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program from 1998 to 2004, and is currently serving as UNICEF Ambassador. Mr. Glover’s visit to Ecuador came in response to an invitation made by the National Secretariat of Communication of Ecuador to international public figures, activists, and reporters to show the world the scope of the environmental damage and the conditions that the affected villagers and farmers have endured for past three decades as a result of such damage.

Chevron has refused to comply with the Ecuadorian court’s ruling to complete the environmental remediation. The invitation stems from a campaign launched by President Rafael Correa last September as a reaction to Chevron’s attempts to discredit the Ecuadorian government for its support to the affected communities.

Texaco, now Chevron, operated in Ecuador between 1964 and 1990, and during this period, the company deliberately used substandard methods to handle the toxic waste derived from the oil exploitation and production. Expert findings during the Ecuador trial showed that Chevron poured over 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into unlined pits, which contaminated the soil, the underground water, rivers and streams in the areas where it operated.

Mr. Glover’s participation in this campaign that seeks justice for the affected communities in Ecuador came just weeks after a visit of Gayle McLaughlin, the mayor of Richmond, California, whose city is involved in a legal battle with Chevron over a massive fire in a local Refinery that sent nearly 15 thousand people to local hospitals with respiratory problems.

Also, American singer and actress Cher recently posted a video in support of the affected communities and called for a boycott of Chevron products. Last October, human rights advocate, Bianca Jagger wrote an article on the Huffington Post denouncing Chevron’s legal tactics to avoid payment of the Ecuadorian ruling, and joined a group of Ecuadorians and environmentalists in a rally in front of the Second District Court in downtown New York, where Chevron brought the victims of the contamination and their lawyers to trial. In February of 2011, a superior court in the province of Sucumbíos, Ecuador, sentenced Chevron to pay $18.3 billion for environmental damages and the resulting health problems on the local population.

Chevron has refused to pay alleging that the ruling was obtained through fraud by the plaintiffs and their lawyers.  Shortly before the final Ecuadorian ruling, Chevron filed a lawsuit in a federal court in New York against them based on the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

The trial began in New York at the Second District Court on October 15, before Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has been accused by the plaintiffs of biased in favor of Chevron.

 

Sheryl Sandberg: Disrupting The Status Quo

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The COO of Facebook argues that in order for change to happen, women need to break down societal and personal barriers by striving for leadership roles. Her global movement is encouraging women to lean in to positions of leadership to ensure that more opportunities are created for everyone.

Mark Zuckerberg once told me,” says Sheryl Sandberg, “If you’re going to be someone who makes everyone happy, then you’re never going to change anything. You’ve got to be willing to fight for what you believe in.” While Sandberg has certainly taken this advice to heart as COO of Facebook, the greatest social engagement  phenomenon to hit the planet, it’s also sage advice for leaders who are brave enough to tackle controversial social issues.

While Zuckerberg has relentlessly pushed his vision for building an online  global community since 2004, Sandberg has launched an agenda of equal magnitude, one that resonates with 3 billion women around the world. Her first book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, co-authored by Nell Scovell in March 2013, aimed to help professional women achieve their career goals, and to help men contribute to a more balanced and equitable society.

Her book looks at the barriers preventing women from taking leadership roles in the workplace, namely discrimination, blatant and subtle sexism, and sexual harassment. Sandberg  also examines societal barriers such as the fact that women still work a double day, catering to both work and household duties, and the devalued perception of work done inside the home compared to the more “serious” work outside the home.

Add to this the barriers that women create for themselves by buying in to systematic discrimination and the societal gender roles, found in male-dominated societies around the world, and we have the current gender imbalance found today.

Women Can Provide The Key To Boosting Corporate Performance

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A recent WEF study shows that C-suite executives are kept awake at night by large-scale global problems such as corruption, geo-political security and energy price instability which increasingly impact their business. These problems go well beyond the ‘tame’ challenges that traditional business models and command-and-control leadership styles can address. A growing body of research shows that women excel in precisely the traits necessary to address these 21st century problems – collaboration, empathy and team-building combined with more vigorous approaches such as taking initiative and driving for results.

‘Women have the potential to be truly transformational, value-driven, value-adding executives who can change their organisations from within and find new solutions to our  toughest challenges,’ said Gayle Peterson, co-director of a new Oxford programme designed specifically for women leaders. Women Transforming Leadership, co-directed by Gayle Peterson and Kathryn Bishop, Associate Fellows of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, was developed both in response to organisations’ need to prepare women for leadership roles more effectively and the need of women themselves to find strategies to fulfil their leadership potential.

The continuing low numbers of women in leadership positions globally indicates that companies and individuals have still not found a way to tap into their valuable skills. ‘Women leaders around the world continue to face significant structural barriers that limit their potential.  Advice to women to “think their way through” is just not enough. Companies that wish to develop solutions to complex, global problems should focus on developing leaders with a broader range of styles, who can think and act differently from traditional models says Gayle Peterson.

‘And the benefits are clear.’ Research shows not only that women possess the skills which organisations increasingly need, but that when they are employed in leadership roles within organisations, they can make a transformational difference to its performance.  ‘The studies really are stacking up and decision-makers within organisations are starting to notice the evidence that gender-balanced leadership teams perform more effectively’ says Petersen.

A McKinsey & Co. report shows for instance that companies with gender-balanced executive committees have a 56% higher operating profit compared to companies with male-only companies. A study from Catalyst found a 26% difference in return on invested capital between companies with 19-44% women board directors and those no women on their boards. ‘These studies do not stand in isolation and I think the case is now being made’ says Petersen. ‘The real question now is what we do about it.’ There is no single, simple solution to address the barriers to women’s advancement and opportunity. Change is needed at systemic level involving societies and policy-makers but businesses too have a key role to play.

‘If organisations intend to succeed in the long term, in an increasingly complex world, they would be well-advised to examine the cultural and social patterns within their walls which limit women’s opportunity and achievement,’ says Petersen. The new programme, Women Transforming Leadership, is designed to develop a network of women leaders from around the world, who can use their skills to step out from the traditional leadership models which are no longer serving the world well. Kathryn Bishop explains: ‘Our goal is for participants to find the programme a transformational experience, both as individuals and as part of a cohort.

We will explore different styles of leadership both traditional and 21st century, so that participants have a wider range of choices and perspectives on their own leadership style. But we focus on action, too: participants will use strategy frameworks and insights to develop a blueprint for action in their lives at work and outside.’ ‘We know that women have powerful skills and abilities’ adds Petersen, ‘but to shatter the glass ceilings, they need more than a “can-do” attitude. Women need access to concrete resources like networks, coaching and mentoring – and to be helped to build specific strategic plans to manage career transitions, and change their organisations from the inside.’

The programme brings together a range of participants from across the world and from a variety of sectors to explore their personal leadership identities and how they can be developed to benefit their organisations and their own careers. The main focus will be on preparing for action and on how they can make an immediate difference.

The programme uses live cases, draws on psychometric profiling, and offers coaching and peer tutoring as well as networking opportunities for the cohort. It is built around a variety of different types of learning methods and Oxford’s extensive experience of developing leaders.

Participants will discover their individual leadership styles, and will reflect on leadership challenges at individual, organisational, and societal levels. ‘If we let them, women can transform traditional leadership models and thereby truly change the world’ says Petersen.

For further information about Women Transforming Leadership, contact: clare.fisher@sbs.ox.ac.uk

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