Boston Consultant Group president and CEO Rich Lesser and Wendy Woods, global leader of Social Impact for BCG, joined HuffPost Live at Davos on Saturday to share how empowering workers actually leads to more productivity.
“In our world, having great talent want to come and want to stay is the single biggest driver of success,” Lesser said.
Lesser said empowering millennial workers and making them aware of the impact they’ll have on the world through their work has increased the success of BCG.
“I really think the more we’ve invested to make it a unique work environment… it’s totally a positive,” Lesser said.
“I just think if leaders don’t set a tone about why we do what we do and why we do it in a way that’s enriching for all of us, then people just assume all leadership cares about is the bottom line,” Lesser added.
Woods said it’s extremely important at a place like BCG that people like Lesser, the CEO, are fully on board with the empowering workers and showing them their jobs serve a greater purpose. Lesser said he tries to lead by example but he’s “probably on email too much.”
Below, live updates from the 2015 Davos Annual Meeting:
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“I just think if leaders don’t set a tone about why we do what we do and why we do it in a way that’s enriching for all of us, then people just assume all leadership cares about is the bottom line,” Lesser said.
Lesser said he tries to lead by example but he’s “probably on email too much.”
“In our world, having great talent want to come and want to stay is the single biggest driver of success,” Lesser said.
Lesser said empowering millennial workers and making them aware of the impact they’ll have on the world through their work has increased the success of BCG.
“I really think the more we’ve invested to make it a unique work environment… it’s totally a positive,” Lesser said.
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Amy Gutmann at Davos
“The challenge of free speech is when there’s speech you really don’t like,” Gutmann said. “We have to live up to the challenge and stand by free speech when it’s offensive speech, as well as when it’s speech we like.”
“The creative spirit comes alive when you can robustly argue with people and feel protected, and feel safe,” she added.
Gutmann said offensive free speech fosters more discussion, which can be a good thing.
“When the speech is offensive I feel we have a responsibility to respond,” Gutmann said.
“We have three president engagement prizes for students who come up with a project to spend a whole year post-graduation doing something in the community,” Gutmann said, noting the first three students will be awarded this spring.
“The whole point is to show that higher education is both about your success, but it’s your success by creating value in the world,” Gutmann said.
Amy Gutmann said it’s her mission “to get the word out” about financial assistance, because she would have been unable to go to college if she hadn’t gotten a scholarship.
Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, said we need to make college more accessible in order for people to thrive in the 21st century.
“No person can afford not to have a college degree, so we have to make a college degree affordable,” Gutmann said.
“Always I try to be centered,” Finucane said.
“Being centered is very important and accepting who you are with your flaws… I walk a lot, I read a lot and I let go. I let go of things,” Finucane added.
