商界為何需要道德革命

Acumen公司的創始人杰奎琳·諾沃格拉茨在上周二的《財富》CEO倡議大會上對著全會場的CEO發出振聾發聵的呼吁：經歷了科技革命后，商界現在需要道德革命。

諾沃格拉茨講述了她的創業故事：30年前從一帆風順的華爾街離職，在盧旺達成立了一家小微金融機構，發展到今天，在全球108家公司投資超1億美元，其企業家精神共計為2.7億發展中國家人民提供了服務。諾沃格拉茨用這個故事為CEO們講述她的經驗和建議，探討如何能為解決世界性難題做出貢獻。

根據諾沃格拉茨的經驗，僅靠同理心是不夠的，因為同理心無法動搖一個人?！叭绻覀儍H僅是感受到另一個人的痛苦，并不一定會做出改變?！彼f。解決世界問題需要的是商業領袖展開“道德想象力”。

她指出，合作對擴大規模至關重要。以Acumen和全球咨詢公司貝恩八年的合作關系為例，期間貝恩派高級合伙人進駐Acumen，還提供了52000小時的無償咨詢。合作項目還包括 “反向學徒”，讓貝恩的青年領導者參與Acumen的實踐項目，比如去埃塞俄比亞、沖突后的哥倫比亞等，項目結束后他們往往對公司大客戶經營的供應鏈及其它項目有了更深入的理解?！斑@讓他們成為更優秀的領導者?！敝Z沃格拉茨說。

一路走來，諾沃格拉茨看到，成功的公司和創業家之間具有共同點，而失敗者總有相似之處。她說，總而言之就是一個詞：個性。她說：“如果一個公司的個性能夠對抗官僚主義、對抗腐敗，并且做到堅忍不拔，持之以恒，就能取得巨大的勝利?！本拖衩腺I的一家公司用3500輛救護車重新定義了印度農村的緊急醫療服務，芝加哥的兩位創業家成立了EthioChicken公司，培育高生育率、高抗病性的雞，出售給小農場，解決了埃塞爾比亞的營養不良問題。

她說關鍵在于押寶“處于邊緣”但理念正確的創業者，把他們推到舞臺中央。

她還鼓勵參會CEO擁抱民族和信仰間的矛盾，但要試著憑借“在虛偽世界里創造希望的想法”走向雙方對立面的中間，還要鼓勵其他人也這么做?！澳呐挛覀兛雌饋碛刑烊乐畡e，我也能找到你觀念中的正確之處，向你走近?！彼昧唆斆椎囊皇自姡骸霸趯εc錯的觀念之外，有一塊地方。我將在那與你相會?！保ㄘ敻恢形木W）

譯者：Agatha?

Acumenfounder Jacqueline Novogratz issued a powerful challenge to the roomful of CEOs at Fortune’s CEO Initiative conference on last Tuesday: Business had the technology revolution; now it needs a “moral revolution.”

Describing her journey of leaving a successful career on Wall Street three decades ago to start a microfinance institution in Rwanda—which turned into more than $100 million in investment across 108 companies around the globe that has used entrepreneurism to bring services to more than 270 million people in the developing world—Novogratz shared lessons and advice for CEOs seeking to help solve the world’s most pressing issues.

Among Novogratz’s lessons: Empathy alone isn’t enough, she said, because empathy allows power dynamics to remain intact. “We don’t really have to change if we feel another person’s pain,” she said. Instead, solving the world’s problems calls for business leaders to channel their “moral imagination.”

Partnering, she said, is critical for scale. She cited Acumen’s eight-year partnership with global consulting firm Bain, which includes senior partners coming into Acumen’s offices and a total of 52,000 hours of pro bono consulting, but also “reverse apprenticeships.” These involve Bain embedding its young leaders in externships at Acumeninitiatives in the field—in Ethiopia, say, or post-conflict Colombia—after which they come back with a different level of understanding of things like the supply chains in which their large-corporate clients are working in. “It makes them better leaders,” she says.

Along the way, Novogratz says she’s learned a lot about the commonalities between the companies and entrepreneurs that succeed and those that fail. It comes down to one word, she says: character. “Those that have the character let them fight the bureaucracy and corruption and let them fight in long-term, gritty ways.” The enterprises that win, she says, “have won in really big ways,” like the Mumbai-based company that has redefined emergency health delivery with 3,500 ambulances in rural India, or two entrepreneurs out of Chicago who addressed Ethiopia’s protein deficiency by creating EthioChicken, which produces highly fertile, disease-resistant chickens and sells them to small farmers.

The key, she says, is betting on the right entrepreneurs “on the edges” and bringing them to the center.

She also encouraged the group to embrace the contradictions between peoples and beliefs, but try to move toward the center—and encourage others to do the same—in the name of the “radical idea of creating hope in a cynical world.” “Even if you seem to be at the polar opposite of me, I can find a partial truth and move toward you,” she said, citing the poet Rumi: “Beyond right doing and wrongdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”