Paul Polman on Corporate's Role in Society

Paul Polman, who just stepped down as Unilever’s CEO, sat down with Egon Zehnder's Dominique Laffy to explain his take on the change. “We’ve clearly arrived at a time when companies that exclude social and environmental considerations from their operations risk losing market share and destroying shareholder value,” he said.

According to Polman, the world requires drastic change to keep functioning and leaders courageous enough to steer purposely through it. “[W]e need people who are willing to go into the uncomfortable zone to drive changes, “ he explained, “Just linear changes, business as usual, or slight changes are not good enough.”