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The entire model of capitalism
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and the economic model that you and I
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did business in
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and in fact that didn't do business in
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was built around what probably Milton Friedman
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put more succinctly.
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And Adam Smith of course
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the father of modern economics actually said
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many many years ago the invisible hand
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which is if you continue to operate
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in your own self interest
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you will do the best good for society.
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Now, capitalism has done a lot of good things.
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And I've talked about a lot of good
things that have happened
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But equally
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it has not been able to meet up
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with some of the challenges that we've seen
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in society.
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The model that at least I was brought up in
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and a lot of prospering businesses were brought up in
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was one which talked about
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what I call the "3 G's" of growth.
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Growth that is consistent,
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quarter and quarter.
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Growth that is competitive,
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better than the other person,
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And growth that is profitable,
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so you continue to make
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more and more share hold of value.
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And I'm afraid this is not going to be good enough.
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And we have to move from this 3G model
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to a model of what I call
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the fourth 'G' --
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the 'G' of growth that is responsible.
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And it is this that has to become
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a very important part
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of creating value.
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Of not just creating economic value
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but creating social value.
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And companies that will thrive are those
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that will actually embrace the fourth 'G'.
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And the model of 4G is quite simple.
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Companies cannot afford to be just innocent bystanders
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in whats happening around in society.
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They have to begin to play their role
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in terms of serving the communities
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which actually sustain them.
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And we have to move to a model
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of an "and, and" model which is
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how do we make money and do good?
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How do we make sure
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that we have a great business
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but we also have a great environment around us?
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And that model
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is all about doing well and doing good.
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But the question is easier said than done.
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But how do we actually get that done?
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And I do believe
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that the answer to that is going to be an issue.
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It is going to be to redefine
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the new business models
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which understand
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that the only license to operate
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is to combine these things.
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And for that you need businesses
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that can actually define their role
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in society
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in terms of a much larger purpose
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than the products and brands that they sell.
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And companies that actually define and do not
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Things that are non-negotiable
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when the times are good, bad, ugly --
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doesn't matter.
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There are things that you stand for.
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Values and purpose are going to be the two
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drivers of software
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that is going to create
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the companies of tomorrow.
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And I'm going to now shift
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to talking a little bit about my own experiences.
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I joined the Unilever in 1976
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as a management training in India.
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And on my first day of work
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I walked in and my boss tells me,
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"Do you know why you're here?"
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I said, "I'm here to sell a lot of soap."
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And he said, "No, you're here to change lives.
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You're here to change lives."
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You know, I thought it was rather facetious.
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We had a company that sells soap and soup ...
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what are we doing about changing lives?
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And it's then I realized
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that simple acts
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like selling a bar of soap
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can save more lives
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than pharmaceutical companies.
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I don't know how many of you know
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that 5 million children don't reach the age of 5
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because of simple infections that can be prevented
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by an act of washing their hands with soap.
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We run the largest
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hand washing program
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in the world.
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We are running a program on hygiene and health
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that now touches half a billion people.
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It's not about selling soap,
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there is a larger purpose out there.
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And brands indeed can be
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at the forefront of social change.
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And the reason for that is
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when 2 billion people use your brands
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that's the amplifier.
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Small actions can make a big difference.
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Take another example,
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I was walking around in one of our villages in India.
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Not all of you who have done this will realize
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that this is no walk in the park.
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And we had this lady
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who is one of our small distributors
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beautiful, very, very modest her home
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and she was out there
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dressed nicely
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her husband in the back, her mother-in-law behind
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and her sister-in-law behind her.
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The social order was changing
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because this lady
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is part of our project "iShakti"
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that is actually teaching women
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how to do small business
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and how to carry the message
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of nutrition and hygiene.
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We have 60 thousand of such woman
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now in India.
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It's not about selling soap,
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it's about making sure
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that in the process of doing so
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you can change people's lives.
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Small actions, big difference.
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Our R and D folks
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are not only working to give us some fantastic detergents,
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but they're working to make sure we use less water.
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A product that we've just launched recently,
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one-rinse product that allows you to save water
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every time you wash your clothes.
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And if we can convert all our users to using this,
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that's 500 billion liters of water.
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By the way thats equivalent to one month of water
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for a whole huge continent.
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So just think about it --
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there are small actions that can make a big difference.
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And I can go on and on.
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Our food chain,
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our brilliant products and I'm sorry
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I'm giving you a word from the sponsors
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(unclear), Helman and all those wonderful products
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we are committed to making sure that
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all our agricultural raw materials
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are sourced from sustainable sources.
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100 percent sustainable sources.
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We were the first
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to say we are going to buy all of our palm oil
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from sustainable sources.
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I don't know how many of you know that palm oil
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and not buying it from sustainable sources
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can create deforestation that is responsible
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for 20 percent of the greenhouse gasses in the world.
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We were the first to embrace that
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and it's all because we market soap and soup.
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And the point I'm making here
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is that companies like yours, companies like mine
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have to define a purpose
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which embraces responsibility
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and understands that we have to play our part
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in the communities in which we operate.
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We introduced something called
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The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan which said,
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our purpose is to make sustainable living commonplace
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and we are gong to change the lives of 1 billion people
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over 2020.
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Now the question here is,
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where do we go from here?
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And the answer to that is very simple.
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We're not going to change the world alone.
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There are plenty of you and plenty of us
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who understand this
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the question is
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we need partnerships, we need coalitions
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and importantly, we need that leadership
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that will allow us to take this from here
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and to be the change
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that we want to see around us.
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Thank you very much.
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(Applause)