Introduction: A Meeting of Minds

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

-Albert Einstein

I WAS BEGINNING to wonder, What the heck am I doing here?

For years I had resisted the idea of going to Davos, the annual week-long retreat for the powerful, wealthy, and famous-heads of state, business leaders, Nobel prize-winning economists and celebrities from around the globe. My company, Russell Reynolds Associates (RRA), works with many of these business executives in the form of leadership consulting and searches for their C-suite executives. But the World Economic Forum's A-list attendees go there to hobnob with each other, not meet one of their service providers. I have always believed one should be the speaker, not the sponsor, at major conferences. It was only after several of my European partners insisted, informing me that the event was beginning to open up to different kinds of thought leaders such as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and activists on pressing issues such as climate change, diversity, and poverty, that I finally agreed to go.

I arrived in the middle of one of the worst snowstorms that this isolated ski resort town in the heart of the Swiss Alps had seen in almost three decades. The main theme of Davos that year was global responsibility. But, in January 2019, my second time at Davos, the topic on everyone's minds was the weather. I'd taken the bus from Zurich, which was a mistake. It took five hours, including a stop to put snow chains on the tires, and there was no bathroom onboard. But I was one of the lucky ones. Blizzard-like conditions eventually closed the airport, leaving hundreds of attendees stranded. Those of us who managed to find our way there were left to trudge through the thick blanket of snow that covered Dammstrasse, the main street of Davos. Even Al Gore had to cancel his helicopter, then motorcade up the mountain. Taxis were scarce; everyone was running late. Fortunately, I remembered to pack a decent pair of boots, which allowed me to dash between appointments of 15-minute increments-the time allotted to get deals done or make my desired impact on the CEO with whom I was scheduled to meet.

Much to my relief, I had many amazing conversations that week. One unique aspect of Davos is that its attendees don't walk around with an army of handlers because it's understood that security is high around the perimeter. It makes people like French president Emmanuel Macron or UN Secretary General António Guterres or then-managing director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde entirely approachable if you feel brave enough. The worst that can happen is a polite brush-off. At least you won't get shoved out of the way by a bodyguard.

But, for all that accessibility, rich Swiss food, and bracing mountain air, nothing about Davos thus far had necessarily blown me away. I was focused on cementing some of our existing strong relationships and laying foundations for new ones. Klaus Schwab, founder and president of the World Economic Forum, told us on the opening night, "We have a unique chance here in Davos to show the world that we are devoting our energies and our resources to creating a global economy that serves the interests of humankind." That message resonated with me, and I hoped it was true.

By the end of my fourth day, I lost track of how many people with whom I had already met. It was a dizzying number of appointments, and one of the last on my schedule was with Lise Kingo, a Danish businesswoman who was then CEO and president of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC).

Back in 2000, the UN formed a nonbinding pact to encourage corporations around the globe to adopt a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-from wastewater reduction to more equitable workplace policies-to be met by 2030. More than 10,000 companies, including RRA, had put their names to the mission but getting them to put pledge into practice had proven to be a mammoth undertaking, and the 2020 deadline for a progress report was looming.

I only knew Lise by reputation. Our firm had recruited her, but we'd never met.

My partners, Simon Kingston and Hans Reus, were adamant that Lise and I meet, in hopes of developing a closer relationship. She was a scholar who'd penned multiple papers on the topics of sustainability and business, as well as an experienced international business executive. Highly respected among world leaders across industries and nationalities, and especially skilled at bringing along even the most reluctant stakeholders, she was best known for her pioneering of the "triple bottom line"-balancing economic, social, and environmental priorities. Lise has, for example, played an integral role in developing the "Changing Diabetes" corporate brand, including the Diabetes Barometer index during her long executive tenure at Scandinavian pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, raising awareness about the disease and improving patient care, while also driving for profits. Her business savvy combined with a dedication to social responsibility and sustainability had even been recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, making her the perfect person to helm the UN Global Compact.

Lise's Davos office, located inside "The Sustainable Impact Hub"-a makeshift workspace about 600 meters away from the main Congress building-was a hive of activity where NGO and UN representatives buzzed around from meeting to meeting with world leaders and each other. The UNGC didn't have the funds for a marquee location, and with just two meeting spaces allocated to more than 10 of these nonprofits and their dozens of delegates, I walked into the middle of a maelstrom.

At first, I couldn't even find Lise as I wandered through a maze of frosted glass and NGO signage. I asked around and was eventually told that she was still deep in a conversation with the president of Ghana. (Lise was obviously a woman in high demand.) Prior to that she'd been face-to-face with various CEOs of companies that were members of the UNGC, from Unilever to Nike to Coca-Cola. (I could not have felt less relevant.) Her meetings, like everyone else's that week, had run overtime. So I waited. And waited. That 15-minute increment became 30 minutes, then 45 minutes. Finally, I sent her a text.

"If this is a bad time, we can always reschedule," I said, admittedly feeling a little frustrated.

"No, no, no, please!" she said. "Wait right there. I'm coming out now!"

And within seconds Lise appeared from behind a partition, right where I happened to be standing. Lise was simultaneously mortified, charming, and profusely apologetic. She immediately ushered me into her office, which was the size of a broom closet, or what she jokingly referred to as her "monk's cell." As we squeezed around the table she apologized again, this time for not being able to offer me a coffee. Lise was disarmingly sincere-one of those individuals with whom I felt an immediate connection.

"I've been looking forward to our talk all day!" she exclaimed, wasting no time to get to the point.

"Clarke, I am distraught," she confessed.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because in 2020 I will have to stand in front of the United Nations, the world, and explain why we are nowhere near reaching our sustainability goals. For all our grand ambitions, our corporate partners have so little to show for it. What am I going to say?!"

For the next few minutes, Lise vented her frustration over the lack of progress while I listened, feeling like an undergraduate getting a crash course from a professor on the critical role that public-private partnerships must play in the well-being of people and planet. It was evident that there was a huge gap between what leaders of the great companies of the world were saying and what they were accomplishing. The intention and commitment were there, but the momentum that UNGC was building was falling way short of the changes the world needed.

Lise went into more detail about how the UNGC was attempting to help corporations reach the SDGs. One of its largest ambitions, set forth in the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, is to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030. To these ends, the UNGC asks companies to first do business responsibly and then pursue opportunities to solve societal challenges through business innovation and collaboration. In that moment Lise and I first met, it was evident that a kind of inertia was holding back this potential progress.

"You know, Clarke, we are facing this massive increase in the earth's temperature if nothing changes, yet there is no sense of urgency. Why?"

Lise and I talked for a while, trying to figure out what was missing. There was awareness of sustainability, sure, but it wasn't translating into action. Sustainability wasn't being integrated throughout organizations, and major decisions and actions weren't being taken through the lens of goals such as human rights or diversity or improving the quality of the air we breathe. Instead of being part of a core strategy, sustainability was being relegated to a single initiative, department, or function. Instead of being seen as an opportunity to further the growth of the business, it was being viewed as a function of risk management or virtual signaling for consumers and other stakeholders. Sustainability wasn't being seen as a...