9: Cultivating Stakeholders

“Companies have historically felt safest on the solid ground of being ‘neutral’ when it comes to sensitive issues involving people and planet. This is not a surprising situation given leaders would prefer not to risk alienating potentially large numbers of customers. This is the transactional dimension taking priority. Brave souls that want to be a positive social force like Marc Beniof are few and far between. Marc is not afraid to do or say what needs to be done or said, and I would argue his influence has only grown as a result. Yet we need many more CEOs and senior leaders to ‘step forward’ if businesses are to become much more of a positive engine,” says Steve Leonard, CEO of Singularity University. A seasoned senior executive in the technology industry who has lived and worked all over the world, Steve has been part of forming many deep-tech startups and led multi-billion-dollar divisions of public companies. He has spoken at many global events and conferences, including the United Nations Development Program and United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia. He is clear in his view about getting businesses to change into a durable and persistent force for good-it's unlikely until more leaders with confidence and conviction step up. Even then courageous leadership may not be enough. As he says, inertia is a powerful reality. Starting something takes effort and so does stopping something, so it is easy to stay channelled within a narrow range of comfortable practices. Leaders may say being a more engaged societal participant is important but when push comes to shove a business leader will simply ask ‘will shareholders reward me?’ Boards, too, are creatures of the system they oversee and will be reluctant to encourage the senior leaders to take bold actions toward positive societal value because they too value risk avoidance when the rewards of constructive disruption are uncertain and hard to manage once begun. Furthermore, there is the usual eye rolling cynicism among many company leaders that view ESG as simply the latest trend and, sadly, some will jump on the bandwagon because of this, then jump off when society moves onto the next hot topic. Plus, the complexity of rearchitecting a company's entire supply chain cannot be overstated. Agreements between ecosystem partners are filled with legalese and performance parameters that strictly guide how businesses within can maneuver. It comes down to a simple truism: businesses today exist to manifest growth that ultimately rewards shareholders. As stark as this sounds, Steve is an optimist. He's seen change happen before. He's led impactful change initiatives himself, including important work he did as Founding CEO of SGInnovate in Singapore, an organization focused on creating a new generation of deep technology companies. He built a team that, coupled with scientific research, worked with a diverse range of stakeholders locally and internationally, including venture capitalists, global companies, and leading universities, to spawn innovative early-stage companies. Within just a couple of years 90 start-ups were built and a community of 33,000 + members was formed. In addition to his business accomplishments Steve has been actively involved in farm-field irrigation systems in Cambodia for more than 20 years. For all his work with exponential technology and those who are building the future, he takes pains to recognise the field irrigation as more about exponential impact. Simple, low-cost technology applied in useful ways that have increased crop yields and associated incomes for farmers by 10X in some areas. Whatever venture Steve is pursuing, he focuses on a few key questions: