When the CEOs of Indian IT giants Infosys, TCS and Wipro built a host of ways to educate Indian children, they were making a statement about their role in India. When Danone’s CEO Franck Riboud committed over seventy million euros to the Danone.Communities project, he was making a purposeful statement about the role of the corporation in society. When Unilever’s CEO Paul Polman committed to significantly reducing the environmental footprint of his corporation, he was making a purposeful statement about climate change. To do this, corporations have to address three questions: how is leadership ensuring there is sufficient inner resilience to take the corporation through these turbulent times? What is the corporation doing to positively anchor itself in its neighborhood and supply chains? And what role is it playing in solving global challenges such as climate change, endemic youth unemployment, and inequality? It seems to me that now is the time for corporations and their leaders to be more explicit and transparent about their purpose and goals. Some are even willing to go out onto the streets to make this clear. But many of us say we don’t trust corporations, and we don’t trust the people who lead them. We may be happy to eat the food that multinationals make, and fly in their aircraft, and even take the pills they have invented.
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