Podcasts about giving more than they take

We appreciate the fabulous response to AND is the future and wanted to re-share one of our favorite episodes from Season One, especially for our new listeners. This episode features Paul Polman, one of the foremost sustainable businesses leaders. Is the world better off because your business is in it? Paul Polman speaks with Ilham about what it takes to build a Net Positive company; how leaders can unlock a company's soul; why empathetic leadership is the key to success; the power of partnerships; the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion, and so much more. Paul Polman is the former CEO of Unilever and one of the foremost leaders in the effort to create sustainable and profitable businesses. While at Unilever he increased his shareholders' returns by 300% while ensuring the company ranked #1 in the world for sustainability for eleven years running. He now runs an organization called Imagine, which advocates for businesses becoming a true force for good. Paul is also the author of Net Positive How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take.This episode was released as part of Season One in October 2022. Timestamps 1:22 - Background and passion for sustainable business5:10 - How to be a Net Positive company8:42 - Purpose: unlocking a company's soul13:36 - Power of partnerships19:07 - Empathetic leadership25:30 - Leaving a better world for the next generation27:32 - What can business learn from the arts?

The Courage to be Net PositiveAndrew Winston is one of the most widely read writers and thinkers on sustainable business. His books on sustainability strategy include Green to Gold, The Big Pivot, and most recently, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, which he co-authored with Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever.Andrew and Paul are ranked #3 in the Thinkers50 Ranking of top management thinkers and Net Positive featured on the Thinkers50 Best New Management Booklist in 2022.In this Provocateurs podcast, Andrew joins Thinkers50 co-founder, Des Dearlove, and Kulleni Gebreyes, Deloitte US Consulting Life Sciences and Healthcare Industry Leader and US Chief Equity Officer. They address how leaders can stand up for their social and environmental values and overcome resistance from within and without their organisation.How can a business become ‘net positive' – one that thrives and profits by solving the world's problems, not creating them? How do you align purpose and profit? Why are companies often expected to prove immediate ROI for sustainability initiatives and not others? Find out more about the prevalence of ‘green hushing,' the positive impact of collective courage, and how younger millennials are driving change in corporate behaviour.This podcast is part of an ongoing series of interviews with executives. The executives' participation in this podcast are solely for educational purposes based on their knowledge of the subject and the views expressed by them are solely their own. This podcast should not be deemed or construed to be for the purpose of soliciting business for any of the companies mentioned, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse the services or products provided by these companies.

Er din virksomhed en positiv kraft for verden? Ofte møder erhvervsleder Paul Polman en reaktion af nervøse blikke og tøven fra virksomheder, i stedet for en konkret overvejelse af spørgsmålet. Polman er en førende figur inden for bæredygtig forretningspraksis og co-forfatter til bogen "Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take". Hans budskab er klart: Virksomheder skal være modige og fokusere på den grønne omstilling i stedet for blot at forbruge jordens ressourcer. I podcasten har vi også Mette Morsing som samtalepartner. Hun har blandt andet erfaring med bæredygtig ledelse. Du vil høre dem diskutere, hvordan vi bør betragte bæredygtige forretningsstrategier som en investering snarere end en udfordring. Som Polman formulerer det: Det er en bevægelse, vi alle skal deltage i, i stedet for blot at øge vores egen produktion. Læs mere Speak, tilrettelægger og klipper: Marie Louise Madelung  

Is the practice of making a company sustainable a performative act, one motivated by a company's true values, or a move made for profit? And furthermore, does it matter if the effects are all the same? Companies all over the world are starting to align with newer, greener trajectories, and they do it for a myriad of reasons.Andrew S. Winston is the founder of Winston EcoStrategies, and an author whose latest book, co-authored with Paul Polman, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, examines precisely these questions. Greg and Andrew discuss what sustainability really means and how it differs and overlaps with ESG. Andrew recounts how the company Unilever has solved problems of sustainability and implemented them on a multinational scale. Greg and Andrew talk about the problem of the terms ballooning to include things originally outside the original definitions, what the future looks like on the sustainability landscape for corporations, and why Andrew is so optimistic about it.*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*Episode Quotes:The impact of individual actions on the environmental footprints24:22: The reason an individual can only do so much on their footprint is because they can't control that the grid is 80% coal in their area or whatever. Like the way that they can impact that is how they vote, right? How they support companies that are promoting the right things are not like it's much bigger elements of their lives than just literally what are they buying day to day. They can vote with their feet, and they should, and there's a few things people can do that move their footprint noticeably like eating less meat is the most immediate thing you can do, starting right now. But there's actually not a thousand things that really have any impact. There's a few, there's a handful. What you eat, what you drive, how close to work you live, and a bunch of these decisions don't come every day. Does sustainability make a company outperform? 12:12: There's been a long correlation between doing well on sustainability and doing well as a business, and the correlation causation there is difficult and impossible to parse. And it's because companies that are good at most things are good at most things. Climate change and the inequality issue46:33: The poorest people on the planet are the least responsible for climate and are basically the ones getting hit the hardest. And the people producing all of the emissions over the last 50 to 100 years are the richest; the richest billion or so of us have created the entire problem.Is the CEO job harder today than it was before?48:45: I was speaking with a CEO group recently, and they said the CEO job is much harder than it ever was before. Well, clearly, look at what's going on, right? You have to chime in on an LGBTQ law if you're Disney. These are hard things. I can't say I feel too bad for CEOs. The average Fortune 500 CEO makes what, $10–15 million a year? Like they're getting paid a lot. Like they're supposed to deal with the hard problems, and they're now being put to the test. And I'm not saying these things are easy, but I have these debates all the time. People say, 'Well, how come my company doesn't respond to everything? ' They don't have to. But the hard reality is that if you don't say something about an issue, you're still saying something.Show Links:Recommended Resources:Paul PolmanESGGeorge Serafeim Faculty Profile at HarvardGuest Profile:Andrew S. Winston's WebsiteAndrew S. Winston on LinkedInAndrew S. Winston on TwitterAndrew S. Winston on TEDTalkHis Work:Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They TakeGreen to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive AdvantageThe Big Pivot: Radically Practical Strategies for a Hotter, Scarcer, and More Open WorldGreen Recovery: Get Lean, Get Smart, and Emerge from the Downturn on Top

Life is full of paradoxes. How can we each express our individuality while also being a team player? How do we balance work and life? How can we improve diversity while promoting opportunities for all? How can we manage the core business while innovating for the future?For many of us, these competing and interwoven demands are a source of conflict. Since our brains love to make either-or choices, we choose one option over the other. We deal with the uncertainty by asserting certainty.There's a better way.In Both/And Thinking, Wendy Smith and Marianne Lewis help readers cope with multiple, knotted tensions at the same time. Drawing from more than twenty years of pioneering research, they provide tools and lessons for transforming these tensions into opportunities for innovation and personal growth.Filled with practical advice and fascinating stories—including firsthand tales from IBM, LEGO, and Unilever, as well as from startups, nonprofits, and even an inn at one of the four corners of the world—Both/And Thinking will change the way you approach your most vexing problems. ***The Burleson Box is brought to you by Mastry:The Mastry App leverages HypnoBreathwork®, a cutting edge method using breathwork to clear energetic patterns, hypnosis to reprogram subconscious beliefs, and visioning to fire new neural pathways for sustainable behavior change. This unique formula accelerates trance-induced states to heal unprocessed emotions from the root and take intuitive action to get into alignment.Mastry is an experience to create connection and live your purpose. Download the app, try a free 7 day tray and join the mailing list at Mastryapp.com***Resources Mentioned in the Episode with Wendy Smith:Both And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest ProblemsBoth And Thinking Book WebsiteParadox Mindset InventorySmith, W. Dynamic decision making: a model of senior leaders managing strategic paradoxes. Academy of Management Journal 2014, Vol. 57, No.6, 1592-1623.Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston ***Go Premium: Members get early access, ad-free episodes, hand-edited transcripts, exclusive study guides, special edition books each quarter, powerpoint and keynote presentations and two tickets to Dustin Burleson's Annual Leadership Retreat.http://www.theburlesonbox.com/sign-up Stay Up to Date: Sign up for The Burleson Report, our weekly newsletter that is delivered each Sunday with timeless insight for life and private practice. Sign up here:http://www.theburlesonreport.com Follow Dustin Burleson, DDS, MBA at:http://www.burlesonseminars.com

Andrew Winston is one of the most widely read and respected writers on sustainability. The author of four books and hundreds of articles, his work has been published in many outlets including the Harvard Business Review and the MIT Sloan Management Review. In 2021 Andrew was named a top 50 management thinker in the Thinkers50 list. Andrew's latest book is, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take. It was co-authored with Paul Polman, the legendary ex-CEO of Unilever. This book is a must-read. In this episode we discuss: ●      What Net Positive means and why it's crucial for business ●      How ESG got tied up in American Politics ●      The difference between ESG and Sustainability Key Takeaways: ●      There's a big difference between the ambition of 1) minimizing the damage your company causes to humans and the planet, versus 2) becoming neutral, and causing no harm, versus 3) making the world better through your operations. Where we set our ambition anchors our thinking (in psychology this is referred to as the anchoring effect). In business, we create company ambitions to anchor the entire organization and orient employees in the same direction.  The ambition you set will determine how inspired your organization is to reach it, the types of innovation they develop to attain it, and ultimately your ambition will influence how far you go. Take a look inside your organization. Where have you set your ambitions? What are you anchored against? ●      ESG and Sustainability are not the same things. They were created for different reasons. ESG, at its most fundamental level, was created to assess the risk of investments, mainly by understanding how the future of a business could be affected by environmental and social issues. It includes an additional lens on whether a company has good governance in place to manage those risks. Sustainability, on the other hand, looks at how a company impacts the world and society, not limited to the lens of business risk. ●      As humans, we have a cognitive bias toward hiring people similar to ourselves. We also know from sound research that diversity makes the strongest teams. How can we help overcome our cognitive bias in hiring? Next time, before you start interviewing to fill vacant spots on your team take a moment to do this visualization. Close your eyes and imagine your workforce filled with clones of you. Honestly assess: what you would be good at and what are your known weaknesses and blind spots. Then mentally scan each of your current team members to determine which of your strengths are reinforced, and which of your weaknesses are compensated by them. Now you know what you and your team already bring to the table, and more importantly, what's missing that a new hire could offer. Knowing this will help intentionally shift your focus from the common “culture fit” question, which is often a disguised way of asking “is this person like me and do I want to be friends with them”, to instead asking “is this person adding to our Super Hero Marvel Team, bringing what none of us have to the team?” References: ●      Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn ●      Andrew's website ●      Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take by Andrew Winston and Paul Polman ●      Paul Polman's website ●      “ESG Is Going to Have a Rocky 2023. Sustainability Will Be Just Fine.”, MIT Sloan Management Review, February 7th, 2023 ●      “2022: A Tumultuous Year in ESG and Sustainability”, Harvard Business Review, December 21st, 2022 ●      Learn more about Edelman's research and reports on trust here. ●      You can read BlackRock CEO Larry Fink's most recent letter to investors here. Connect & Share: If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading them! If this episode resonated with you, I ask you to send it to a friend. Help bring even more visibility to these leaders that are using business as a force for good! Subscribe to the Purpose and Profit newsletter to make sure you don't miss future episodes. This podcast is for you, the listener. I'd love to hear what resonated with you, or if you have a suggestion on who would be a great guest for this show. Please send me a note at info@KathyVarol.com.

A successful business solves the world's problems, not causes it. They give more to their community than they take. Andrew Winston is a globally recognized expert on megatrends and how to build companies that thrive by serving people and our planet. He is one of the most widely read writers on sustainable businesses in the world with regular columns Harvard Business Review and the MIT Sloan Management Review. His latest book, 'Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take,' coauthored with the renowned CEO Paul Polman, was recognized as one of Financial Times Best Business Books of the Year. His first book, 'Green to Gold,' which he coauthored with Daniel Esty, has reached more than 100,000 people in seven languages. And his book, 'The Big Pivot,' was selected as one of the best business books by Strategy and Business magazine. He shares his inspiration, motivation, and research behind the importance of being a net positive business. Learn more about his work and influence on The Colony Group's Net Positive Pledge in this episode.

Is the world better off because your business is in it? Paul Polman, one of the top leaders advocating for sustainable businesses, speaks with Ilham about what it takes to build a Net Positive company; how leaders can unlock a company's soul; why empathetic leadership is the key to success; the power of partnerships; the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion, and so much more.  Timestamps 1:22 - Background and passion for sustainable business5:10 - How to be a Net Positive company8:42 - Purpose: unlocking a company's soul13:36 - Power of partnerships19:07 - Empathetic leadership25:30 - Leaving a better world for the next generation27:32 - What can business learn from the arts?Paul Polman is the former CEO of Unilever and one of the foremost leaders in the effort to create sustainable and profitable businesses. While at Unilever he increased his shareholders' returns by 300% while ensuring the company ranked #1 in the world for sustainability for eleven years running. He now runs an organization called Imagine, which advocates for businesses becoming a true force for good. Paul is also the author of Net Positive How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take. For additional details about the podcast, show notes, and access to resources mentioned during the show, please visit https://www.solvay.com/podcast

“Business cannot sit on the sidelines — we're not moving at the scale and speed needed, we as industry leaders have an enormous responsibility to drive these tipping points.” Paul Polman, one of our most prominent and vocal P&G Alumni, who also happens to be the former CEO of Unilever. In this talk from 2021 P&G Alumni Global Conference Paul talks about "Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take" - a recent book he co-authored, the Financial Times named among the Best Business Books of 2021. The Financial Times declared Paul "a standout CEO of the past decade” - as he is a leading proponent that business should be a force for good. And the Economist declared Paul "An advocate of sustainable capitalism explains how it's done." Paul Polman is the co-founder of IMAGINE, where he is mobilizing businesses to tackle climate change and global inequality. Paul also served as the CEO of Unilever from 2009-2018, where he created - and proved- a long-term approach to global problems can also drive business performance. Prior to Unilever, he was Nestle's CFO & Head of Americas. And of course, Paul got his start at P&G, where he spent 27 years rising through the ranks ultimately leading Europe for P&G. Paul continues to be active on the world stage, bridging the private/public sectors. Alongside the UN Secretary General, he helped develop the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Paul is chair of the International Chamber of Commerce, The B Team, Saïd Business School and Vice-Chair of the UN Global Compact. You'll enjoy this very frank, compelling, and action oriented talk about what we can all be doing as business and community leaders — to face the challenges we have in front of us, and be a force for good. Paul's past P&G Alumni Podcast appearance: https://apple.co/3eI5PSR BOOK: Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take - goodreads.com/book/show/58090463-net-positive

«Fear doesn't move people. Hope does», the business and thought leader says in this podcast episode, expounding on the transformative challenges for sustainable business, the global food system and the «myopic focus on shareholder return».Guest: Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, co-founder and chair of Imagine, and most recently, the co-author of Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take. Podcast hosts: Kim Gabrielli (UN Global Compact Norway) and Øystein E. Søreide (Abelia). Producer: Kristian Tvedt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, host Colbert Cannon sits down with Jackie Hernández, the CEO and co-founder of New Majority Ready. Jackie is a media executive with a storied career at iconic companies like TIME, People en Español and NBCUniversal's Telemundo. She shares how she rose through the ranks to help shape Spanish-language television and expand the industry's understanding of the rapidly growing Hispanic market. We also hear about Jackie's latest venture, New Majority Ready, a marketing strategy consulting company that helps companies to attract and retain Hispanic audiences through more nuanced marketing strategies that meet these consumers where they're at. Learn more about Jackie Hernández tenure at New Majority Ready here. You can read our guest's Best Idea, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take by Paul Polman & Andrew Winston, here. Watch Money Heist, Colbert's Best Idea for this week, here.

Welcome to the very first episode of our first season of the Big Spark Cast.In today's episode, I am delighted to be sitting down with Paul Polman.Paul is the epitome of courageous leadership. He is a renowned business leader, author, campaigner and influencerMany of us came to know Paul as the CEO of Unilever where famously for over a decade during his tenure, Unilever was one of the best-performing companies in its sector.Paul is now the Co-founder and Chair of IMAGINE. He was involved in the development of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and continues to work with organisations and industries across the world to bring about the 2030 agenda. In 2021, Paul co-authored, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take.Connect with Common Purpose at:https://commonpurpose.org/LinkedinTwitterFacebookInstagramYouTubeThe Big Spark Cast is hosted by Adi Sengupta and produced by Kate Rintoul and James King.Our Music is supplied by Epidemic Sound.The Big Spark Cast is brought to you by the not-for-profit organization Common Purpose. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In episode 4, Andrew talks to Paul Polman, one of the world's leading proponents of sustainable capitalism, about using business to drive positive global transformation. Paul has been called one of the standout business leaders of his generation. For ten years as the CEO at Unilever, he helped revolutionise corporate thinking. He proved that putting purpose and sustainability first was the right way to run a business – Unilever's profits went up while simultaneously ranking number 1 for sustainability. Paul was also a member of the UN Secretary General's High-Level Panel, which developed the Sustainable Development Goals, and as an active SDG Advocate he continues to work with global organisations and across industry to push the 2030 development agenda. He is Chair of the B Team and Saïd Business School, Vice-Chair of the UN Global Compact and honorary Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce, which he led for two years. In 2019 Paul co-founded IMAGINE, whose mission is to support business leaders in a “courageous collective” to build a sustainable future. In conversation with Andrew he reveals everything he's learned about moral leadership, and talks about his new book – Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take.Says Paul: I've always felt that business should profit from solving the world's problems not creating the world's problems. Featuring:Dr Andrew White, Senior Fellow of Management Practice, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.Paul Polman (@PaulPolman), Co-Founder and Chair, IMAGINE. Resources:Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take• Subscribe to Andrew's Leadership2050 Newsletter on LinkedIn• Discover more articles, podcasts and videos from Saïd Business School on the challenges business leaders of the future need to consider on Oxford Answers • Follow us on Twitter @Oxford_AnswersSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In such turbulent times, how should businesses strategize to grow and at the same time have a positive impact on the world? . Techsauce looks at how companies can drive a positive future with Andrew Winston, Manager at Winston Eco-Strategies, LLC, an expert on megatrends, and co-author of “Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take” . Winston talks about how companies can leverage the Net Positive Approach to serve the greater good for the world.

In this episode, CSB Director CB Bhattacharya is joined from Geneva, Switzerland by Paul Polman, ex-CEO of Unilever and co-founder of IMAGINE. As CEO of Unilever from 2009 - 2019, Paul demonstrated that a long-term, multi-stakeholder model goes hand-in-hand with excellent financial performance. He was also part of the team that set up IMAGINE in 2019 to galvanize industry leaders around the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. In this episode, Paul and CB discuss insights from Paul's book, "Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take," including: • What it means for a company to be "net positive" • How defining your company's purpose starts with finding your own purpose • Why the big challenges facing the world will require a new kind of leadership Learn more about this week's guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulpolman/ Sign up to receive weekly episodes right to your inbox: bit.ly/csbpodcastemail Submit your "Sustaining Sustainability" feedback and/or questions: bit.ly/csbpodcastfeedback This episode was researched, recorded, edited, and produced by Prof. CB Bhattacharya and CSB Team of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Sustainable Business: www.sustainablebusiness.pitt.edu Music: "Lively" by Dee Yan-Key From the Free Music Archive CC BY NC SA creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcod

Marisa Zalabak - Open Channel Culture--- Welcome - 0:30 On Dystopian AI-Driven Culture - 1:00 Marisa Zalabak Intro - 6:00  Developing Human Skills of Adaptability - 10:00 What Psychologists Know About Consciousness - 13:45 AI as an Oil Race - 16:00 Transhuman Movemment, Personality and Intelligence - 20:00 St. Augustine, Toni Morisson, and What is Moral  - 22:00 Lack of Critical Thinking in Education - 24:15 Leadership is Asking Better Questions - 25:00 Star Trek Talk - 26:50 Leadership and the Unexamined Container - 28:00 The Agency of the Individual Versus the Power of the Collective - 30:30 The Spiritual Implications of Thinking Machines - 39:00 Leadership and Morality - 42:00 Leadership and Transformative Change - 50:00 Managing Fear and Technology - 57:00 The Regenerative Movement - 1:00:00 Leadership Games - 1:10:00 Staying on the Path - 1:15:00 ---Marisa Zalabak - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marisa-zalabak-4368482b/Marisa Zalabak TED Talk - https://youtu.be/HdYrjmvUAfwSpeakers Who Dare NYC 2020 - https://youtu.be/KPDaq9uQiS8Speaker Salon NYC 2021: Stardust and the Uniqueness of Human Potential - https://youtu.be/IvlPn3aMCQkIEEE - https://www.ieee.org/Open Channel Culture - https://openchannelculture.com/The Open AI Project - https://openai.com/Marisa's Book List:Extended Mind by Annie Murphy PaulTheory U by Otto Sharmer et. alGreen Swans by John ElkingtonRace after Technology by Ruha BenjaminNet Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take by Paul Polman & Andrew WinstonHeartificial Intelligence by John C. Havens Uncharted, How to Map the Future Together by Margaret HeffernanDoughnut Economics by Kate RaworthThe Good Ancestor: A Radical Prescription for Long Term Thinking by Roman KrznaricFlux by Anne RinneAnd, of course, classics authors for Ethics & Leadership: Toni Morrison, Joseph Campbell, Proust, Vicktor Frankel, Kazuo Ishiguro---Check out HSCT Publishing at: https://www.hsctpublishing.com/.Check out LeadingKeys at: https://www.leadingkeys.com/Check out Leadership ToolBox at: https://leadershiptoolbox.us/Contact HSCT for more information at 1-833-216-8296 to schedule a full DEMO of LeadingKeys with one of our team members.---Jesan Sorrells Presents - YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/JesanSorrells/featuredJesan Sorrells - IG  - https://www.instagram.com/therealjesanmsorrells/Jesan Sorrells - FB - https://www.facebook.com/JesanMSorrells/Jesan Sorrells - LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesansorrellsJesan Sorrells - Twitter - https://www. twitter.com/jesanmsorrellsJesan Sorrells - https://www.jesansorrells.com/

In this episode of the Hopecast, Dr. Jane Goodall speaks with Paul Polman, business leader, campaigner, and author of Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take. He is also the co-founder and chair of IMAGINE, an organization that strives to build net positive companies that combat climate change, nature loss and global inequality. A leading proponent that business should be a force for good, Paul has been described by the Financial Times as “a standout CEO of the past decade.” In this conversation, Paul shares his journey to business leadership and how growing up in the socially conscious culture of the 1960's fostered in him a sense of global empathy. From there, Jane and Paul discuss new, environmentally conscious trends in business. Paul sees that corporations hear consumer and staff demands for ethical business practices and understand the necessity of sustainability and social justice. Paul's work with IMAGINE is to help find ways for these companies to turn those ideas into action internally and within the supply chain. Together, they reflect on the effects of unsustainable production, and globalization, and consider the role of corrupt governments and systems of inequality as perpetuating major problems, like the climate crisis. Finally, they consider the hopeful possibilities, and how to replace environmentally and socially harmful industries while fulfilling the needs of both consumers and laborers. Ultimately, Paul believes in our collective ability to protect our planet and hopes to “bring the heart of humanity back to business.” At the End of the Rainbow: Stay to the end of the episode to hear a clip of Dr. Goodall discussing the necessity of redefining corporate and governmental relationships with the natural world. 

This week, a conversation with business expert and best-selling author, Andrew Winston, about his new book, “Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take.

This week, a conversation with business expert and best-selling author, Andrew Winston, about his new book, “Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take.

Profits should come not from creating the world's problems but from solving them. Companies must ask themselves: Is the world better off because your business is in it? These are just a few of the urgent and inspiring lessons offered by the globally renowned sustainable business author and advisor Andrew Winston in his recent book, “Net Positive: Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take,” co-authored with Paul Polman, the visionary former CEO of Unilever.In this episode, host Gil Jenkins speaks with Andrew about the principles and practices of net positive companies that are outlined elegantly and colorfully in his seminal new book. Gil and Andrew talked at length about the growth of clean energy and sustainable businesses, what ultimately convinced Andrew to write his fourth book on the subject, and what makes his co-author's journey so compelling and instructive for others. They also discussed the Golden Rule, why corporate climate advocacy is so important, the failure of shareholder primacy, and a whole lot more. We hope you enjoy this spirited conversation on how businesses can prosper while also helping to confront the massive dual challenges of climate change and rampant inequality. Links:Andrew's Website Book: Net Positive Andrew on TwitterAndrew on LinkedInArticle: Sustainable Business Went Mainstream in 2021 (Andrew Winston, December 27, 2021)Article: Companies Must Find the Courage to Back Up Statements on Climate Action (Andrew Winston and Paul Polman, September 7, 2021)Episode recorded: December 15, 2021

In their seminal book 'Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take' former Unilever CEO Paul Polman and sustainable business guru Andrew Winston explode fifty years of corporate dogma. Theyreveal, for the first time, key lessons from Unilever and other pioneeringcompanies around the world about how you can profit by fixing the world'sproblems instead of creating them. To thrive today and tomorrow, they argue,companies must become “net positive”—giving more to the world than they take.This episode features Paul Polman interviewed by former CEO and co-founder of Seventh Generation, and CEO of the American Sustainable Business Network, Jeffrey Hollender in dialog on what net positive really means, and what businesses are being called to do in these times. 

Paul Polman was the CEO of Unilever from 2009 to 2019, the first from outside the company in its century-plus history, and has been described by the Financial Times as “a standout CEO of the past decade.” Today he works to accelerate action by business to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which he helped develop. Andrew Winston is one of the world's most widely read writers and leading thinkers on sustainable business. His books on sustainability strategy, have sold more than 150,000 copies in seven languages. Together they just published a new book, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, which outlines a framework to help leaders build net positive companies that profit by contributing more to the world than they use or take. In a conversation with Martin Reeves, Chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, the authors share insights from the book, discuss key takeaways of the recent COP26 meeting, and explore how can CEOs drive collective action addressing massive challenges and profound shifts that threaten humanity and biodiversity, building thriving businesses as a result. *** About the BCG Henderson Institute The BCG Henderson Institute is the Boston Consulting Group's think tank, dedicated to exploring and developing valuable new insights from business, technology, economics, and science by embracing the powerful technology of ideas. The Institute engages leaders in provocative discussion and experimentation to expand the boundaries of business theory and practice and to translate innovative ideas from within and beyond business. For more ideas and inspiration, sign up to receive BHI INSIGHTS, our monthly newsletter, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

For the first time ever, we are all in-person bringing you this episode from the TED Countdown Summit in Edinburgh! TED Countdown is an event that officially kicked off on 12th October and encompasses four days of inspiring talks, collaboration, connections and commitments to meaningful action for a better world ahead of COP26. Our guest today is Paul Polman, return Outrage + Optimism guest and a celebrated business leader who made sustainability the heart of a global consumer business' growth agenda in his former role as CEO of Unilever. He is joined by one of the most widely read, published and acclaimed writers on sustainability, Andrew Winston, to talk about the new book the two have co-authored, “Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take”.   We unpack the ways the book re-frames how business can put a lasting end inequality and climate change. Can every business be Net Positive? Find out! Stick around for a track of epic proportions from musical guest, WACO.   —   Christiana + Tom's book ‘The Future We Choose' is available now! Subscribe to our Climate Action Newsletter: Signals Amidst The Noise   __   Mentioned links from the episode:   Go buy Paul + Andrew's new book: Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take   TED Countdown! Blog (Day 2) | Twitter | Instagram   Clay Recommends - Visualizing Climate Change: An Open Call For Photography __ Thank you to our guests this week, Paul Polman and Andrew Winston!   Paul Polman Influencer, business leader, campaigner Twitter | LinkedIn    Andrew Winston Writer, Adviser/Speaker on Megatrends & Sustainability, Consultant on Corporate Strategy Twitter | LinkedIn —   Amazing music this week was from WACO!   WACO Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify   You gotta see their punkishly cosmic music video for “A New Future”   They have a physical copy of their latest record for sale out on Venn Records, made from leftover waste vinyl: “Hope Rituals” - Buy It!   Sales will be donated to Beyond Gender - Please check out the work they are doing to create a fairer and safer society.   —   Keep up with Christiana Figueres here: Instagram | Twitter   Tom Rivett-Carnac: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn   Paul Dickinson: LinkedIn | Twitter   —   Follow @GlobalOptimism on social media and send us a message! Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn   Don't forget to hit SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss another episode of Outrage + Optimism!

Paul, thank you for talking with us today. The audience of this podcast is people who are interested in being involved, in building back better, and dealing with some of the big global challenges that we're now facing. In a sentence, why should they read your book?Paul Polman (PP): Well, in a simple sentence will be one question: is the world better off because your company is in it or not? This is probably the most important question to ask. What the book is trying to do is to create a movement that really describes how successful companies can profit -- not from creating the world's problems, but from actually solving the world's problems. So we describe officially in the book Net Positive as: a business that improves the well being for everyone it impacts, and at all scales -- be it product, operations, regions, countries -- and obviously caters to the multiple stakeholders. World Overshoot Day this year was July 29, which is the day that we use up more resources than the world can replenish. In other words, every day after that, we're stealing from future generations. So it's not anymore enough to be linear or to be circular. But more and more companies have to think about what can they do to have a positive impact on society. If they really can't answer that, then why should society keep these companies around? So the book talks about two things, personal transformation, because it starts with leaders, you cannot have systems changes without leader changes. So leadership transformation, and then systems transformation. And it takes you, with very simple steps, through what you need to do to get your own company in shape, to play a key role in your own value chain in your industry associations, and ultimately, in the broader society that you play in. And, the book doesn't shy away from some of the tougher choices, such as how you deal with tax, with corruption, with trade associations, with money in politics, with human rights. It's written for everybody, small and big companies, others who want to play a role in changing society for the better. So we think it broadly resonates. And, if I may, the characteristics perhaps would be good to talk about of a net positive company. That basically boils down to companies that take responsibility and ownership for all impacts and consequences in the world. Intended or not. Many only look at scope one and two under their control. But you have to take responsibility for your total handprint. You cannot outsource your value chain and also expect to outsource your responsibilities. That simply doesn't work anymore. It's companies that operate for the long term benefit of business and society, that try to create a positive return for all stakeholders. They see shareholder value as a result of what they do, not as a goal in itself. And last but not least, they partner to form these broader systemic changes that society needs.MB: So we're in a very interesting moment where in some ways, business appears to be at least talking the talk on being a more positive force in society. You know, you've had the Business Roundtable decision, that you note, to sort of abandon the Milton Friedman view of the world and to sort of focus on more stakeholder capitalism. And you've had lots of companies saying they're committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. And more companies generally stepping into some of the political issues around elections in America, or issues like transgender rights, and yet there's also tremendous skepticism. You take a book like Anand Giridharadas' Winners Take All, which really regards all of this as a giant charade by capitalism. How do you view this data? Because in the book you do acknowledge that, even at Unilever, with some of the things, that you didn't feel you went far enough with, but you were one of the leaders there. Are we getting there? Is this real? Is it just greenwashing? Rainbow washing? What is it?PP: I've read Anand's book Winners Take All and frankly, that's a book heavy on the analysis and light on the solutions. This book is really more practical and offers solutions to move it forward. It's very clear that governments are not functioning the way we have designed them, that multilateralism is not really delivering what we expect from it. The multilateral institutions that were designed in, basically, 1944 with Bretton Woods are not adapted to the current changes. And the bigger issues are more global -- climate change, cybersecurity, pandemics, financial markets -- and we're just not getting to it. And what I think what you see is a few things, [such as firstly] technology always developing faster than people realize. So it's easier to change things. Now take green energy [as an example], the International Energy Agency was expecting solar and wind in 2014, to be five cents per kilowatt hour in 2050. We have achieved that in 2020 already. So technology is advancing. And the other thing that is happening is the issues are creeping up on us faster than we realized, especially on climate, we're getting closer to a negative feedback loop. And business sees that pressure. You see the weather disasters -- we literally have the world on fire -- disruptions in the food supply chain, and the logistics, and many other things. And in fact, COVID has been a rude awakening that you cannot have healthy people on an unhealthy planet. Just in Europe and the U.S. alone, we've spent $16 trillion on stabilizing and saving lives and livelihoods. The economy itself has probably lost $25 or $26 trillion dollars, according to the IMF. So people are starting to realize that the cost of not acting is becoming much higher than the cost of acting. And that's why you see this high level of dissatisfaction with the young people, with employees, with your customers, with people in your value chain. And good companies understand that, they understand that they have to be part of the solution, not the problem. They're internalizing sustainability, they put it at the center of their business, they become more purpose driven businesses. And what you see is that businesses that operate increasingly under these longer-term, multi-stakeholder principles at the core are actually also better performing. That bifurcation has been even stronger during COVID. That's one of the reasons why you see ESG funds taking off, green bonds taking off, the investor community getting actively interested in it, standard setters moving forward. Some of the responsible governments, like Europe, are embedding it in legislation, like the Green Deal or the taxonomy, so it's definitely moving. But as usual, as these things are becoming more topical, thousands of flowers bloom -- for example, we have over 600 standard setting bodies. And it's time to make some bouquets.And yes, if there are no clear standards, then companies will interpret things differently. And some people might call that greenwashing. And there's undoubtedly some of that going on. But broadly, it is clear that we're moving in the right direction, but [just] not fast enough, and not at the scale that we need. We now have about 20% of the companies, for example, that have commitments to be net zero by 2050. But what about 2030? Because we cannot wait that long. What about beyond scope one and two, and including scope three, four or five? And that still is unsettling for many.MB: Because in the book, you talk about how these goals ought to be. You use the acronym SMART, which is measurable and realistic. I think a lot of the netzero pledges have been made without the companies that are making the pledges really having much of a sense of how they're going to get there. And so you feel like it's more of an ambition that may be far enough into the future that the company's current leadership need not own it and there's no pathway. Is that a problem?PP: Well, I think increasingly, for some industries, it is difficult. If you're in the fossil fuel industry where investments are being made by your predecessor or your predecessor's predecessor, and it takes 30 years before you get a return on drilling a well, etc., it's difficult to change very quickly. And some of the heavy industry, which happens to also be heavy emitters, might not have all the answers yet. How do you totally decarbonize airlines, or shipping, or steel, or aluminum and some of the other things? And the fossil industry itself needs careful reflection. But what is clear is that, increasingly, companies understand that it actually can be done, and it is within reach. Companies from Salesforce to Microsoft to Unilever, or to Pepsi and others [like] Walmart are making commitments that not only green their supply chains well before [they are expected to]  -- Amazon itself, 2039 -- and they have clear plans and pathways to get there. But they're actually going beyond that, they're looking at restorative commitments, they're looking at integrating biodiversity and planetary health into their thinking. And what we find is that companies that proactively work this are often better run, their leaders are more in tune with societal needs, they come out with better products, have more engaged employees, better relationships in the value chain, and increasingly, that is linked to better returns. You can now measure the negative environmental impacts of companies. And even within the same industries, there are some companies who take mitigating their environmental impacts more seriously than other companies within those industries. And what we clearly find is that accounting for these externalities about a quarter of these companies would not be profitable. But even within the industries, the ones that are less productive, also have lower valuations. So I think the market is starting to factor it in. And, looking very much at the leading companies that position themselves well for the future, and starting to reward those. So it is moving. But again, as I mentioned before, these issues are creeping up on us quicker than we thought. We're getting close to the situation that the Amazon are becoming negative emitters, that the Borealis melting releases methane that is up to 100 times more potent in the short term, and we don't have that luxury to wait. So what you need is to get critical mass behind this transformation, which is a big transformation, we all realize that. And that critical mass can only come from working together with civil society, with governments, obviously, and with the private sector, to drive these broader system changes.MB: You open the book with this example of [when] you were quite far along in your time at Unilever, and the the CEO of Heinz comes along and makes this hostile takeover bid offer to you. And it seems like this is a battle between the old style capitalism and the new style capitalism. In this case, you were able to persuade shareholders to back you in this new model against the old model. Do you feel like that marked a decisive turning point in the attitude of big shareholders towards how big companies should be managed -- that they seemed to be saying: now we will support this net positive type of leadership?PP: Well, it certainly raised awareness. I was happy that it happened during my eighth year of tenure in Unilever. We had produced very good returns for our shareholders. We also had worked very hard on changing our shareholder base, which was more loyal and had benefited from this value creation. So it came at a good moment in that sense. But it points out the dichotomy that there is in two legal systems. One that is focused on a few millionaires and billionaires, and financial manipulation, high leveraging up, cutting costs, frankly, something that anybody can do. And one that is more working for the billions of people invested in longer term value creation. And Unilever has certainly done that. Since the Kraft/Heinz attempted takeover bid, their share price has lost about 60%. They've had lawsuits, they've had change management three times, [while] Unilever share price has continued to grow. And I think this longer-term value creation model is also a better model over time for the shareholders, and you don't have to wait too long for that. So that game, I think that was being played there is increasingly being called out as not being constructive for society. And I broadly think that the longer-term shareholders understand that there's just so much money that we've put in the global economy, that a big part of that is chasing short-term returns at every cost. And there are some people that think their own greed is more important than the future lives of their children. So you always have to deal with these challenges, but in order to avoid that over time, and to move it in the right direction, we indeed need to be sure that the regulatory frameworks and the moral standards that we put behind it, the obligations that we demand from companies as they operate in society, that they also fulfill the needs of society and get a real license to operate. It hurts to see a company like that at the bottom of a human rights index. And it gives me pride to see Unilever at the top. And if we can square that multi-stakeholder focus, in our case there was a 300% shareholder return over 10 years, then I think that is a much better thing for society. I've always said, I'm a proud billionaire, because we've focused on improving the lives of billions of people. And that's a good way not only to live your life, but if you can also show that it is good for your shareholders, I think you square it, and give people more confidence that this should be the direction we should be pushing for.MB: I wanted to focus on the last two or three chapters of the book where I think you really push into some of the very cutting edge developments that need to happen if a business is to really achieve its full potential in improving the state of the world. One is this whole issue of how you in the industry can partner with your competitors to actually, overall raise standards across the industry. And one example you give us is the fashion industry, which, obviously, increasingly, people are scrutinizing for the fast fashion, and in particular for its lack of sustainability. What have you learned about making a cross-industry partnership successful? What are the conditions that can make that a really positive thing?PP: There's a whole chapter in the book which is called “One Plus One is 11” that deals with these broader partnerships. It's very clear that CEOs alone are held to very high standards and often higher standards than they actually can fulfill themselves. No CEO can move the whole market to regenerative agriculture, or solve the issues of plastics in the ocean, or even get to green energy, if a broader system around you doesn't pull in that same direction. And that's difficult for CEOs then to move things forward. Also, sometimes they feel that if they do it, and competitors don't, they might be at a disadvantage, because obviously there are other forces at play. So one of the reasons I created Imagine as a social enterprise is to bring a critical mass of CEOs together across the value chain, to look at some of these issues. Sometimes they are value chain issues, sometimes time availability, or knowledge issues. And together, they become more courageous. And if you have 20% to 30% of the market represented, civil society wants to join, NGOs want to be part of it, governments start to listen, and you can drive the broader system changes.An example is fashion indeed, where we have 80 companies now in the fashion industry, together under the fashion practice. It's a very destructive industry. But together, they have decided to move to regenerative cotton. Together, they are now buying green energy to get to the Paris Agreement and stay below 1.5 degrees. Together, they're learning on how to integrate, with the help of Conservation International and others, biodiversity targets into their business models. So things that they could not do alone. And I believe that, increasingly, when it concerns the future of humanity, we shouldn't compete about that. But leave enough space in other areas to obviously compete. Now many of the CEOs get that. We get an enormous demand. We're working also with the food companies, where we have 30 companies. We are starting now as private equity, with tourism and travel. So I think the needs are there. And creating these neutral platforms as we've done at Imagine is one way of addressing that. But increasingly, you see these broader partnerships emerge, with partnerships for the greater good. And what most of these CEOs find is, whilst you cannot solve all these issues in one minute, and you have to space it out over a period of time (that we, to some extent still have), that a lot of things can be done, that are also immediately beneficial to the top and bottom line of your company. And not only from a risk mitigation point of view, but also from an opportunity point of view. And that makes these partnerships so powerful. The challenge is to get that translated into working together with governments to change the frameworks. Because right now, be it the carbon transmission and decarbonizing our global economy, or changing the food chain to make it more in line with the planetary boundaries, currently, many countries have frameworks in place that actually push you in a different direction. And that's difficult, ultimately, to achieve your objectives if you can't change those.MB: But you have another chapter looking really at multi-stakeholder partnerships. It seems like we've been talking about how you get government, business, and the civil society organizations, NGOs, to work together for a long time. What have we figured out about what makes for a successful multi-stakeholder partnership? Because a lot of them haven't succeeded.PP: Successful partnerships -- many partnerships obviously don't work out -- there are numbers floating around that 75% of partnerships might fail. But ultimately, if the aligned objectives are there, you have the same purpose, you're very clear on what each partner brings to the party, you work with transparency that creates that trust, you have clear accountability mechanisms,  everybody clearly understands what his or her contributions are, then these partnerships can work very well. Unilever built a tea plantation in Rwanda, where we needed the government from Rwanda, and where we needed organizations like Dfid, the U.K. development aid, and where we actually got high net worth individuals, like Ian Wood from the Wood Foundation, that were willing to help and protect the smallholder farmers. And we could create a value chain that was good for all of its stakeholders, and delivered the quality tea that also was feeding our brands. By the way, interestingly, [speaking of] the brands, people want to know if these products are sourced sustainably and where they come from. So building these whole models with these broader partnerships are very important. When we went into Ethiopia, we first worked with the government with our brands like bar soaps or toothpastes, or [we worked] with the health workers, they have about 30,000 health workers there, to teach people the benefits of hand washing, or tooth brushing, that are far more preventative solutions than waiting for the problem to occur. And only when we created that credibility over the longer term, we [were then able to] make these brands available into society on a broader level. And these are the broader partnerships that work for us.It's interesting in the book, we talked about $3.5 billion being [spent] in lobbying in the U.S. alone -- I wonder how much money goes to self-interest? Well, one company says A and the other company pays money to say B; where politicians are in the pockets of some of these big spenders, we see, increasingly, that that's not the type of democracy that ultimately builds the value. And I think you see the enormous price we pay for that. Ceres, which is a company that is very capably led by Mindy Lubber, is pulling the financial market to a higher level of responsibility. It was looking at all this government spending and lobbying etc., and it actually found out that 40% of the companies in the U.S. were not actively even engaging with governments, or moving things forward in the right level, on let's say on climate change, when they know it's a big issue. So the book is talking about: how do you create these partnerships? Why would you do that? What benefit do you get out of that by being a participant? And frankly, the employees and the companies expect the CEOs now to increasingly participate. About 76% of the employees expect this. And it's interesting, because CEOs broadly think they do. But when you ask their employees, there's a big gap between what the employees think and what the CEO themselves think. MB: And as you say, one of the things we're seeing now is employees becoming more vocal -- in social media and elsewhere, at meetings, and so forth -- and holding their bosses to account. And we're almost out of time, and I've got two more questions. One, is really, I love your last chapter where you go, what the next frontier of…  PP: Engaging the ElephantsMB: Yeah, the elephants. And obviously, one of the elephants that you acknowledge right up front is companies trying to avoid paying taxes, and you really argue against that. Another is this lobbying issue, you want to basically end, and political donations, you want to get rid of those. And then you talk about corruption. Are you starting to see company leadership and shareholders really want to get into these, to address these elephants in the room, or do you feel like there is still a long way to go?PP: On some issues more than others, obviously. But you mentioned a few. I don't want to respond to all of them, but take tax for example -- one quarter of the Fortune 500 companies paid zero tax in 2018. 10% of GDP is in offshore accounts. 500 or 600 billion of taxes are lost as a result of that. At Unilever I put my tax principles on my website. We got out of these constructions that were purely organized for tax reasons, and the company did fine. We hire people that get free education, we would use the road systems, we need social safety nets around people. When you get things like COVID, I think it's quite normal that you pay tax as well. So it's hard to square over time that society will give you bonus points on being a purpose driven company, if you don't find a way to contribute your fair share there either.And it's the same thing with some of the other areas that we talked about. If you look at the shareholder propositions right now, the shareholder resolutions, they are actually demanding more and more transparency.Take in the U.S. the issue of money and politics. If you will have taken 2009, well before this January 6 event of storming the Capitol, in 2019, there were over 50 political spending proposals on the ballots of shareholder meetings, non-court accepted; if you look now, to date, already in 2021, there are over 40 on the proposals, and you're already running at a significantly high level of support. MB: For disclosing what the donations are and who to.PP: What the donations are and for what they are. So you see, actually, the shareholders are demanding more. Now more CEOs are getting fired for ESG related reasons, then for performance related reasons. You see shareholders demanding, like in the famous Exxon case, that they are more aggressive on mitigating climate change. We saw it with Shell and some other companies [too]. So if you don't embrace these elephants proactively, and have a strategy around that, which is what we're really talking about in the book, then I think you will be exposed. You mentioned in every company there is an activist; every company I think has a Greta Thunberg inside of them. And if they see, increasingly, these companies, on the one side, saying we want to do this and making these public statements, but then, for example, financing trade associations, like the American Petroleum Association, or some of the others actively advocating the opposite, then you lose credibility, you undermine your culture, and ultimately, the fabric of your company, and that gets reflected in your success, and share price. So it is important that you discuss these issues, it is important that you take positions on them, and it is important that you do that in a holistic way. And not do it in a CSR way, where you pick a few topics that you think suit you well, but then go horribly wrong in the other areas. That's why this book talks about net positive in a more holistic way. And which makes it such a powerful book, actually.MB: I wanted to end with asking for some career advice for our listeners. You mentioned every company having a Greta Thunberg maybe lurking within it, but the book really, I think, raises more clearly than any other book I've read, this notion that you can be a net positive leader. If you're someone who is committed to public service, you can actually go into a company and see that as a way of living a life of public service, which is an idea that 25 years ago would have seen laughable or even 10 years ago, but now seems to be a choice that many people are wrestling with. If I want to give, if I want to be part of the effort to build back better, should I go into business? Or should I go into government? Or should I go into a nonprofit? Or what? How would you advise someone trying to wrestle with that kind of calculation as to where they should focus their energies and their life, if they really want to have the biggest positive net positive impact in their career?PP: Well, I ended up in business, by a little bit of serendipity. I wanted to be a priest first, then a doctor, and none of that really worked out. So I ended up being in business. But I discovered that, business being 60% of the global GDP, 65% or 90% of the job creation and the financial flow that you cannot solve any of these famous Sustainable Development Goals, bar a few if you don't have business actively in there. So you need business, but for the same reason, you also need government, and you need civil society. It's really what the book ultimately talks about is this partnership that needs to be formed between all of them. And my advice to anybody listening and looking for a job is: find out what the world needs, what you're passionate about, and what you're good at. And if you can work on that intersection of what the world needs, your passion, and what you're good at, then you're going to have a very fulfilling and and very gratifying life.Mark Twain said there are two moments in life that are the most important: the first one is when you were born, and the second one is when you figured out why you were born. If you can operate on that intersection, it is giving you a meaningful life that I think most people aspire to. So it's not one or the other, it's really finding yourself and realizing, above all, that we are lucky. Most of the people listening here have been educated, they didn't have to deal with the issues of food security, or stunting, or open defecation. But that, unfortunately, is only 5% of the world population that you belong to, and have that freedom to some extent. And then it is important, I believe, to put yourself to the service of the other 95%, who still have not been so fortunate.MB: If I asked you to build on that, if I asked you to take a 100 mile up view of the world, I suppose you would say that for someone wanting to have a positive impact for good, there's never been greater opportunity to do that through business than now perhaps. But if you looked at each of business, civil society, and governments, and you looked at their human capital, where are people with a service orientation, most needed? Is it business? Is it government? Or is it civil society at the moment?PP: Well, I think frankly, we have a leadership deficit everywhere. It's clear that the MBA programs, which have given us the leaders for business, are a version of Milton Friedman on steroids, and are in desperate need to be reinvented. In politics it has become, for different reasons, increasingly more short-term oriented. Many of the NGOs have also been called out. Whilst they play a very crucial role, many of them are mono issue end result focused, and are not willing to walk the journey, or walk in partnership. So I think the biggest deficit is not in one or the other institutions. The biggest deficit ultimately, is the leadership. And that's why this book starts with a very famous question: do you care? And that's why we believe and what makes it so powerful, is that you need a personal transformation before you get a systems transformation.MB: Well, thank you. I think that's a great note to end on. I would like to thank both you, Paul Polman, and Andrew Winston for writing this book Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take. It is an incredibly positive and practical book that anyone who is thinking about if they should live out their public service through business, will find very useful and very inspiring. So thank you very much for talking about the book with Books Driving Change, Paul, thank you.PP: Thank you, Matthew enjoyed it.We hope you are as inspired by these podcasts as we are. If you are, please subscribehere, or wherever you get your podcasts (Amazon Music, Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher), and please rate us and write a review so others can find their inspiration.  This transcript has been lightly edited for context and clarity. 

“We are at this crucial juncture where we really have to decide if we're going to live together in harmony and in sync with planet Earth or if we become one of the statistics of extinguished species. I know which side of history I want to be on.”Paul Polman: influencer, business leader, campaigner, and one of the pioneers of the stakeholder capitalism movement. From creating the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) during his tenure as CEO of Unilever to supporting CEOs in their work to implement purpose, Paul believes that the true definition of a billionaire is serving billions. His new book, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, is a roadmap for embedding purpose into an organization. In the book—and in this episode—Paul explains how Unilever brought the USLP to life through employees and embedded it into culture, operations, innovations, supply chain, customers, consumers, and communities. Paul joined host Carol Cone on Purpose 360 to explain what it means to be a net positive business today and why he will always be a “prisoner of hope” when it comes to solving our shared global challenges. Listen for insights from Paul on:How a business philosophy that supports shared prosperity creates both social impact and financial returns.Why exercising humility and recognizing that you can't do everything on your own is vital to creating great impact.Why it's important to bring in NGOs and partnerships to learn and grow.The three lessons Paul would share with a CEO trying to be net positive.Links & NotesPaul Polman on LinkedInBuy your copy of Net Positive: Bookshop.org Barnes & Noble Apple Books AmazonIMAGINE[Unilever Sustainable Living Plan 2010 to 2020(https://assets.unilever.com/files/92ui5egz/production/16cb778e4d31b81509dc5937001559f1f5c863ab.pdf/USLP-summary-of-10-years-progress.pdf)

“We are at this crucial juncture where we really have to decide if we're going to live together in harmony and in sync with planet Earth or if we become one of the statistics of extinguished species. I know which side of history I want to be on.” Paul Polman: influencer, business leader, campaigner, and one of the pioneers of the stakeholder capitalism movement. From creating the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) during his tenure as CEO of Unilever to supporting CEOs in their work to implement purpose, Paul believes that the true definition of a billionaire is serving billions. His new book, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, is a roadmap for embedding purpose into an organization. In the book—and in this episode—Paul explains how Unilever brought the USLP to life through employees and embedded it into culture, operations, innovations, supply chain, customers, consumers, and communities. Paul joined host Carol Cone on Purpose 360 to explain what it means to be a net positive business today and why he will always be a “prisoner of hope” when it comes to solving our shared global challenges. Listen for insights from Paul on: How a business philosophy that supports shared prosperity creates both social impact and financial returns. Why exercising humility and recognizing that you can't do everything on your own is vital to creating great impact. Why it's important to bring in NGOs and partnerships to learn and grow. The three lessons Paul would share with a CEO trying to be net positive. Links & Notes Paul Polman on LinkedIn Buy your copy of Net Positive: Bookshop.org Barnes & Noble Apple Books Amazon IMAGINE Unilever Sustainable Living Plan 2010 to 2020

As we witness the acute effects of climate change and economic inequality, business needs radical reshaping. Andrew Winston has advised countless companies on how to create positive impact, and in his new book, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, he charts a way forward for the future. In this episode Andrew and I talk about what it means to be net positive, how he co-authored his book with former Unilever CEO Paul Polman who shared his experience at the helm at one of the world's largest companies, and why net positive is the only path forward for business and humanity. This episode of Lead With We was produced and edited by Goal 17 Media and is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. You can also watch episodes on YouTube at WeFirstTV. Andrew Winston Andrew has been working at the intersection of business and the planet and society for 20 years. In addition to his newest book, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take, he is also the author of bestsellers The Big Pivot and Green to Gold, as well as hundreds of articles for the Harvard Business Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, and other outlets. His perspective on business is rooted in my early career, with experience in consulting (BCG), media (Time Inc., Viacom), and dot-coms, and he has worked on Sustainability Advisory Boards and directly with multinationals such as HP, Ingersoll Rand, J&J, Kimberly-Clark, Marriott, PepsiCo, PwC, and Unilever. He also speaks to audiences around the world, offering an optimistic view, grounded in heard realities, on how to create value by making the world a better place. Simon Mainwaring Simon Mainwaring is a brand futurist, keynote speaker, and bestselling author. He is best known as the author of We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World and his upcoming book, Lead With We: The Business Revolution That Will Save Our Future; as the Founder and CEO of We First, an award-winning strategic consultancy that works with purpose-led companies to build their brand strategy, company culture, and impact storytelling; and as the author of the influential ‘Purpose At Work' column in Forbes and host of the podcast, Lead With We. This episode of Lead With We was produced and edited by Goal 17 Media and is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. You can also watch episodes on YouTube at WeFirstTV.  Resources Learn more about Andrew Winston Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn For case studies and other free resources about purposeful business, go to WeFirstBranding.com Simon's new book, Lead With We, is now available for pre-order on Amazon, Google Books and Barnes & Noble. Check it out!  

Paul Polman is the former CEO of Unilever, one of the largest companies in the world with over 300 brands. Paul helped redefine what being a good company means long before it was acceptable to think about anything besides profits. Paul shares how Imagine, a movement that he co-founded, brings together a critical mass of CEOs across the value chain to move industries toward sustainable impact goals such as climate change and inequality. Learn more about what a good company is and how your business can thrive by giving more than it takes.Paul is the author of the highly anticipated book Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take.