Fernando Napolitano, Author IRG Book and CEO NEWEST
Preface by Stefano Caselli, Dean SDA Bocconi School of Management
Afterword by KC Sullivan, President CNBC
"Since the fall of the Berlin wall, the world of business has undergone a profound transformation. Companies have generated unprecedented wealth, scale, and geopolitical influence. They have acquired state-of-the-art skills and sophisticated management systems. In the process, corporations have, largely if not exclusively, monopolized the pool of available talents. In contrast, the public sector remains at the margins of globalization. It has lost three decades of fundamental knowhow, which is instrumental to effective intermediation between the interests of capital and the well-being of the population.
“A business leader today must do more than worry about profits… what they need to do is talk about how to increase the odds that conditions exist in which their businesses can operate successfully”, stated Richard Haass, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Business is best at generating value for owners, being both an engine of innovation and driving economic prosperity. However, within the complexities of today’s business world and the rapidly changing social context and increased expectations, a company’s enhanced mission should include the creation of value and sharing of know-how with the full range of stakeholders – owners, employees, consumers, policy-makers and the broader society. Further, the anticipation, management and delivery of such expectations will, on one hand, ensure and solidify the continued creation of value for its shareholders and, on the other, to explain to stakeholders that there are limits on what companies can do and take on.
This calls for skills and processes that go beyond traditional communication or lobbying activities., Such mitigation has become essential to ensure receptive appreciation of corporate plans as they become increasingly complex and technologically intensive. If this communication is misunderstood, the corporation’s actions can become controversial. The IRG addresses this challenge by providing measurable solutions.
This approach, based on assessing The Influence, Relevance and & Growth approach and methodology objective is to support corporations that operate in democracies to recognize such imbalance and to engineer themselves to compensate for policy-making shortcomings by proactively share and transfer know-how to, in fact, policymakers.
According to IRG, companies must inform politics, not step into politics.
The IRG recognizes and manages the structural changes occurring in society. It provides the needed tools for corporations, including:
Measuring wider influence. Building the gravitas and positional strength of the corporation through its status and competencies so that it can support and help shape policy.
Strengthening capability. Ensuring the corporation can openly and transparently create consensus and support for strategic themes, whether core business or tangential, that require deeper understanding and appreciation.
Increasing relevance. Becoming a valued and sought-after intermediary for policymakers, and socially valued by consumers and workforce.
Leadership and steering. Enhancing management capability to avoid being overwhelmed by increasing stakeholder expectations on new themes related to the business.
Risk control. Lowering risk associated with the implementation of strategic plans.
Growth. Creating robust long-term value for shareholders.
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