Blue Chip Issue 89

BLUE
CHIP
FINANCIAL PLANNING | Leadership
Disruption, reinvention and
inclusive leadership:
how can we use the opportunity
to create a better world
We are living through extraordinary times,
experiencing big overall trends; climate change,
technological disruption, a mental health crisis, a
fracturing world and social instability – all of which
are reshaping the business environment and our world today.
Many people are feeling hugely burdened by all of this, and
rightly so. The risks these trends create only strengthen the weight
and relevance of solid financial planning, of creating stability
where we can. What is important to realise though is that these
trends pose new and huge risks, but also great opportunities to
rethink our work and our world fundamentally. The way we will
handle the problems we have today is going to impact the way
we are able to work and live in the future – and I want to take it as
far as saying it will impact how we inhabit our planet.
The need for reinvention
In its recent CEO survey, PwC interviewed over 4 000 CEOs in over
100 countries. Almost 40% of CEOs said that if they continued their
current course, their business would not be viable in 10 years’ time.
“Evolve or die,” many of them said. A big need was identified: the
need for reinvention. Reinvention being the shifting of mindsets,
the “re-imagining and re-making of our reality to create something
new and improved, with new qualities and attributes”.
If businesses are pressured to reinvent, so are their leaders
and their people… this creates pressures and burdens for
individuals, yet once again opportunities! What if the rethinking
and re-imagining of our current reality could create something
better? Better working conditions, a more humane economy, a
better treatment of our planet?
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