IMD-OWP22-PostEvent-Report-V11[8]

→Sustainability

KEYNOTE

“COMPANIES IN THE FUTURE WILL FIND IT DIFFICULT TO OPERATE IF THEY DO NOT HAVE A STRONG SUSTAINABILITY AGENDA SUPPORTED BY FACTS. SUSTAINABILITY HAS BECOME THE LICENCE TO OPERATE.”

“Sustainability used to be ‘either-or’: We focus on sustainability or focus on growth or innovation, but we cannot do everything. That dialogue is no longer valid. Sustainability is an ‘and’, and we need to make sure we change that mindset.” In the context of the food industry, he said the situation was “even more complex”, balancing areas such as a food security, climate change, circularity, and biodiversity.

“We are seeing the end of the era of globalization in the way it has been,” he argued. “The future will be more regionalized and customized. It will also be about different speeds in how the world will evolve and different countries will evolve […] not just about how to balance global versus local, but how to create an organization that is ready for a multi- speed world.” IT’S GETTING HARDER, BUT LEADERS MUST GET BETTER Finally, he said that decision-makers had to evolve their leadership skills to ensure they were equipped for an environment that was not going to “get easier”. “We need to get better,” he said. “We need to unlearn and to learn. What took us here, we can assume most probably, will not take us into the future.” Having joined Tetra Pak in 1993 as a commercial director in his native Mexico, he drew on close to three decades of international leadership roles to share an ABCD of leadership lessons for orchestrating a sustainability- led transformation: Authenticity, Balance, Collaboration, and Diversity.

SUSTAINABILITY IS THE AGENDA, NOT JUST ANOTHER BOX TO TICK “Companies in the future will find it difficult to operate if they do not have a strong sustainability agenda supported by facts,” he said. “Sustainability has become the license to operate.” However, there also needs to be a strong business case for any sustainability-led transformation, he said, adding that more and more CEOs are seeing future competitive advantages in sustainability. THERE IS NO EITHER/OR ANYMORE While some business leaders might continue to view investing in sustainability and growth or innovation as a trade-off, he said executives should focus instead on finding the sweet spot between ‘doing well’ and ‘doing good’.

MAKE BIG BETS ON THE FUTURE Leaders must find a way to join the dots in a highly complex present, while also anticipating and taking risks on future opportunities to carve out competitive advantage. “More today than in the past, the role of CEOs is taking the big bets for the future,” he said. “CEOs need to bet today on what is going to be the future for companies 10 to 15 years from now.” When calculating these big bets in the food industry, he highlighted four indicators to watch: consumer trends centered on convenience, nutrition, and hyper- customization; digital platforms and factories; faster, smarter, and more sustainable tech; and game-changing business models and value sources, such as new sources of protein and lab- grown meat. THE WORLD IS MORE DIVERSE AND MULTI- SPEED THANWE THOUGHT Understanding the markets in which companies operate is crucial. This means grasping global themes and forces, while also appreciating the nuances of regional landscapes.

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