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0:00
Hi, my name is Noa Gafni.
I am the Executive Director for
the Rutgers Institute for
Corporate Social Innovation and
a fellow of Social Innovation at
the University of
Cambridge and I'm here
today to talk about
inclusive impact,
how companies are engaging
at the intersection of
social innovation and diversity,
equity and inclusion.
0:20
We know that the world is facing
a variety of social pressures.
From inequality to
the climate crisis,
to global health challenges
like the COVID 19 pandemic.
0:32
The same time we know
the role of business in
society is changing
for the better.
For example, a
number of CEOs have
shared how we need to have
a new type of capitalism.
Marc Benioff the
CEO of Salesforce,
a large conglomerate
in the United States,
talked about how the
current system has led to
profound inequality and
that in order to fix it,
we need businesses
and executives to
value purpose alongside profits.
A few years ago,
business leaders
like Richard Branson
and the former CEO of Unilever,
Paul Polman thought together
to work with a group of
leading CEOs from
around the world
to create a plan B for business,
what they call the B Team.
According to the B team,
they say our economic
model is broken,
but we can build
a new one that is
sustainable,
trusted, and strong.
The public is calling
for it, future
generations depend on it.
1:23
What we're seeing with
this confluence of
massive global challenges and
this new role of business in
society is that businesses have
a new opportunity to create
both impact alongside profits.
What does this mean?
This means that
companies that are
prioritizing workers and
customers during the
COVID crisis have been
seen to be outperforming
their peers financially,
as well as in terms
of their impact.
We've seen a number
of organizations work
alongside other sectors to
make sure that
vaccines were created,
that people were giving away
PPE have different
pieces of equipment and
making sure that really business
was able to serve society
in a time of crisis,
like the COVID crisis
and what's interesting
is that even though
this was seen
by many as a tipping point,
where seeing other organizations
do the same thing for
more long-term challenges like
the climate crisis as well.
