A video version of this blog can be found at the foot of this piece to improve accessibility.
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Dear CEO / Senior Leader,
Something’s been weighing heavy on my mind recently and I’d like to bring it up with you on a personal level.
For anyone that knows me, I am curious and I have been exploring the spaces of people and culture, diversity, equity and inclusion, and sustainability, in addition to my leading matrix Euro 20m business on an international basis within corporate – during these explorations I have learned a lot and grown my network worldwide, engaging with thought leaders in these areas. I’m hoping my explorations can bring deeper value within your company, and I am trying to understand how to best do that.
I recently came across this set of questions by Paul Polman, who is someone of course with great influence in the area of people and culture and as an ex-CEO of one of the world-leading consumer goods companies Unilever, he’s turned his attention to sustainability and being in right relationship with nature.
I include it again here in case you’re interested to read more – but really it was these two following questions that have been weighing on me in thinking about our worldly work in the Global North aka ‘West’ and our potentially bigger impact that you and we all could make:
Question 10 – Can you identify key areas where your business can leverage its unique skills to lead and address some of the world’s challenges?
Question 22 – Do you use the company’s voice to speak out in support of democracy, science-based facts, justice, and equality, even in geographies with restrictive laws and cultures?
These questions matter to me as someone that today works at the center of our global, raw material supply chain yet I personally benefit from the ongoing systems that prevail, too often at the expense of others, and I believe that these questions will matter to you too.
I myself had a cancer scare last year and that has changed my perspective on many things. It has driven me to try to understand better our roles and purposes as individuals and as organisations operating on the same planet. With the cancer, I had a deep sense that this is what has been happening not just in my body but on our planet, and we, humans, communities, companies, etc. are inherently a part of the planetary system, and things are accelerating in unpredictable ways.
This is what is driving me to bring this up with you today. I wonder if exploring in this space is something you’d be keen to do? It’s certainly something I’d be interested to go deeper into both within your organisational across roles and across your sector and I would be very happy to support you in that exploration.
I welcome any feedback or other reflections that may emerge as you reflect on this piece and you can reach me at [email protected].
Kindest regards