Rachael Chong, founder and CEO of Catchafire, explained how she left the world of investment banking — a job she said she actually enjoyed — to become an entrepreneur.
“While I was banking I still wanted to be able to give back and at the time the only opportunity was, once a year we’d get put on a bus and go build a house,” Chong told HuffPost Live at Davos on Saturday. “All volunteer work is good, but when you think about maximizing impact, bankers building houses is not necessarily the best use of their time.”
“I became really obsessed with then finding a way to volunteer my skills,” Chong added.
Chong said the people who volunteer with Catchafire gain something by giving up their time and services.
“It gives people a sense of purpose,” Chong said.
One of the few women at Davos, Chong spoke about the challenges she faces as a woman and said more women in business need to make their voices heard.
“I think we have to use our voice,” she added. “Particularly with businesswomen, there are so few, and as role models they’re so important.”
Below, live updates from the 2015 Davos Annual Meeting:
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Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, said his book grew out of working with people who are really successful.
“Success can become a catalyst for failure,” he said.
McKeown said leaders at Davos have experience with plateauing after achieving professional success. To avoid that, McKeown said, people must find a way to expand their contribution without doing more.
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When you bring together decision-makers and regulators to look at how social media can improve trust and transparency, and create rules that provide clarity and consumer focus, it helps to foster a collaborative relationship between the regulator and the industry. This is essential for navigating a somewhat uncertain landscape. At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos this year, social media expert David Kirkpatrick and European banking authority Huw van Steenis will come together to discuss this pressing issue in a global context.
Read more here.
HuffPost reports:
Emma Watson followed up her September 2013 HeForShe address with another equally impassioned speech — this time at the World Economic Forum.
On Jan. 23, the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador took the stage in Davos, Switzerland to speak about the HeForShe campaign, the influence it has had on her own life and the new initiative Impact 10x10x10. “Women share this planet 50/50 and they are underrepresented — their potential astonishingly untapped,” she told the crowd.
Read more here.
Based on their research, Keller and Grise said companies should aim to transform by evaluating their purpose and looking to their employees.
“Can they understand [they’re purpose]? Can they articulate it?” Grise said.
Keller said she is seeing more mission statements that don’t aim to describe what a company does, but why a company does what it does.
“It can’t just be a tag line,” Grise said. “You have to really live it.”
“Today you can’t stop transforming, you can’t. You won’t survive in today’s environment,” Grise said, noting she and Keller think transformation can come about through a sense of purpose.
