Beyond Sustainability: Radically Rethinking the Purpose of Business

Event details

26 March 2020

09:30 - 15:00

Alumni, Executive Education, Invites Only, Public

In light of the 2020 health crisis, this event was successfully moved online.

Sustainable business is no longer about banning plastic water bottles from the office or arming your organisation with glossy reports.

We were delighted to host our fifth annual conference virtually, where we discussed how businesses must radically transform to support the regeneration of a thriving, resilient and adaptable society.

We explored how businesses can continue to drive competitive advantage, as the pressure increases to fundamentally re-evaluate their purpose for the common good.

Your virtual host

Matt Symonds is a management columnist for Forbes, BBC and formerly The Economist and Bloomberg. He has co-founded some of the most popular business school and university platforms of the last 25 years, and written speeches for Fortune 500 CEOs. He co-founded Fortuna Admissions with former Directors from Wharton, INSEAD, LBS, Harvard and other top schools, and was the S of QS Quacquarelli Symonds, publishers of the QS World University Rankings. His book on MBA Admissions was sponsored by McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, BCG and Bain.

Keynote speaker: Mike Coupe, CEO of Sainsbury's

Mike Coupe has been the Group Chief Executive Officer of Sainsbury’s since 2014. He has also served as an Executive Director since 2007 and has been a member of the Operating Board since October 2004. Mike has vast retail industry experience in trading, strategy, marketing, digital and online, as well as multi-site store experience.

Imperial College Business School’s fifth annual conference explained why and how to experiment and innovate towards a new way of doing business centred around stakeholders. Top academics, business leaders and policymakers brought together new economic models and practical experience to find ways businesses can improve human and environmental wellbeing.

Our key themes included:

Stakeholder capitalism – what does this mean and how can it be created?
Developing an integrative and regenerative organisation – how can you frame and tackle this transformational journey?
Consumer, labour and investor constraints – how can these be successfully negotiated to create truly sustainable value for all?

Re-thinking the role of business requires pioneering thinking and bold leadership at the highest level. This invite-only event was specifically designed to inspire action and share knowledge with senior executives from some of the world’s leading organisations.