Today was the second day of IMD's Responsible Leadership Summit, held at the new impressive Maersk Mc-Kinney Moeller Center.
I will not bother you with the details, only say that a less inspiring morning was somewhat redeemed by two more passionate and knowledgeable speakers in the afternoon; Peter Bakker, CEO at TNT and John Elkington of Volans.
Responsible Leadership - or whatever you wish to call it - is a damned hard topic to even just define, much less to get your arms around. But one dialogue in particular made my day;
Confronted with his company's spending on CSR (such as their sponsorship of the World Food Program), and whether it would not suffer like all other expense accounts in the current crisis, Peter Bakker made it simple; you can decide to cut for example marketing or other accounts - that is entirely up to the company. But know this; once you have decided to spend money on relieving poverty or bringing food to starving kids, you can't go back. It's a one-way street; you just don't stop feeding starving kids. Simple.
Thank you for the inspiring sessions, Peter and John.
Kamal Quadir of Bangladesh's CellBazaar has just been awarded a Young Entrepreneur award at the World Economic Forum. His idea of a cell-phone based market place is inspiring.
Peter Bakker of TNT. Bringing real and GENUINE (not just an advertising gimmick) CSR into the board rooms today is difficult - but Peter is a true believer - and he communicates it convincingly and with passion.
