Hewlett-Packard (HP)
We have a responsibility to redefine the role of the corporation on the world stage.
“As leaders, now more than ever before, we have a responsibility to redefine the role of the corporation on world stage, and to leverage our ability to impact individuals, companies, communities, nations for the better,” says Carly Fiorina, CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
“We must remake our businesses to be far more active corporate citizens—creators not only of shareowner value, but also of social value, in ways that are systemic and sustainable.
“It becomes our job to use a profit engine to raise the capabilities, extend the hopes, and extinguish despair across the globe.
“We have a chance and an imperative to improve the choices, economic condition, and sphere of opportunity for billions more people here at home and around the globe. It’s a greater mandate, one that our customers increasingly demand on us, one that is deserved by every country in which we do business, and one, I’d argue, that must be undertaken because it can be undertaken.
“This is a mandate that started as a quiet whisper more than a decade ago, and more recently could be heard loudly in Seattle and Prague and Genoa in the voices of protesters who declare that global companies have not lived up to their responsibilities.
“What is important here is not to take sides in the globalization debate, but to look at the problem and work toward a real solution.
“As the world moves toward a knowledge economy, the mandate for leadership changes.
“Unlike a world dominated solely by manufacturing prowess or distribution reach—one in which success is often about wringing cost out of the system or maximizing a supply chain—we’ve entered a different world.
“In a knowledge economy, an economy driven by intellectual and human capital, in addition to financial and physical capital, the transfer of knowledge, information, and know-how—the exchange of services— will become an increasingly important driver.
“In such an economy, partnership, trust, reliability, and respect become important. Which is why, in an economy where intellectual capital is currency, corporate behavior becomes a scorecard by which you are judged—by your customers, your employees, and your shareowners.
“That scorecard will, of course, include your ability to be a competitive player, but equally important on the score-card will be:
- Your integrity and your character
- Your ability to transfer value and know-how into local economies in which you do business
- Your track-record as a socially responsible corporate citizen
- Your ability to sustain and nurture true partnerships and ecosystems in which all parties gain both social good and economic gain
“The winning companies of this century will be those who prove with their actions that they can be profitable and increase social values—companies that both do well and do good. So much so, in fact, that business leaders will no longer view doing well and doing good as separate pursuits, but as one unified pursuit.
“and, increasingly, shareowners, customers, partners, and employees are going to vote with their feet—rewarding those companies that achieve social change through business.
“The companies that will be worthy of their investment, money, time, and energy will be those with similar values and those that can meet a much higher standard of performance.
“I should note this has nothing to do with politics or subscribing to a particular ideology or economic theory. This is simply the new reality of business—one that we should and must embrace.
“The question, of course, is, how? “Whether your business, like HP’s, spans the entire globe, or just the eight blocks around this building, the same principles apply.
“There are key leadership imperatives that are at work, and must be mastered, for all of us as leaders to operate and succeed going forward.
“Imperative number one is the principle of leadership and the mandate to build a winning culture. This first leadership imperative starts within the walls of your company, in the vision you set and in the culture you build.
“Recently, in the business world we talked about culture as a lever for change and a means of motivating employees—and, certainly, that’s still true. But particularly since September 11, culture has also come to mean something else.
“According to a recent Wall Street Journal article on the redefinition of the workplace in light of recent events: ‘The tragedy brought need for safety, security, belonging, and affiliation into sharp relief.’
“Clearly, it is leadership’s responsibility to give employees space and support to rethink their priorities in the wake of recent events. But the article goes on to say that if ‘managed correctly, recent events present an opportunity to strengthen employees’ sense of affiliation through a vision, a common mission, a common sense of purpose.’
“In this context, as leaders, we must answer the question for our employees: In a world where know-how and insight and intelligence and inventive spirit are the keys to success, what role will our company play in fostering it, and what role will we play in harnessing it?
“Once we answer this, we then have to foster a culture that can deliver on that vision.
“It’s important to remember that top leaders can set a vision, set a strategy, set a system of rewards and metrics that encourage people, reward people, and train people. But the rest is ultimately up to the individuals and teams in our companies. It is very much the acts of individuals, the every day acts of many, which make the biggest difference in the overall performance of a company.”