CEO lessons from the Jack Welches of the world are ‘mostly obsolete’ now, ex-Dow Chemical chief executive says

At a time when many CEOs are soft-pedaling their social missions to avoid political pushback, Andrew Liveris’s new book Leading Through Disruption offers a full-throated defense of stakeholder capitalism. It’s a welcome antidote to the moment.

Liveris was CEO of Dow Chemical for 14 years, and tells how when he began the job, he spoke with many of the great CEOs of the time for their leadership advice—IBM’s Sam Palmisano, P&G’s A.G. Lafley, Citigroup’s Sandy Weill, GE’s Jack Welch, Walmart’s Lee Scott. He eagerly captured their wisdom on a notepad, creating his own masterclass in 20th century business leadership. But when he looks at that notepad two decades later, he realizes it is “mostly obsolete.”

“This isn’t to say that many business and leadership lessons or skills from the twentieth century aren’t relevant. They are. But the business landscape today is so foreign from that of two decades ago that figuring out how to deploy those lessons and skills needs to be reimagined and retaught.”

His book is designed to provide a tool kit for 21st century leadership. And it’s not by accident that he devotes the first chapter to “The New Role of ESG” and the second chapter to “The New Common Good.” In his view, these aren’t just an add-on to the CEO job—they have become central to it.

“This century’s businesses won’t thrive unless society and the Earth also thrive. The global enterprise I call Humanity Inc. needs to evolve aggressively for everybody’s survival, which is why adopting and embedding ESG metrics is minimal table stakes of a business’s license to operate in the twenty-first century.”

Those are strong words for a man who was running a petrochemical company. He uses a succession of Ds to describe the evolution of business thinking on this subject during his time at Dow. Particularly on environmental issues, the company went from “Denial” in the 1960s to “Defiance” in the 1970s to “Debate” in the 1980s to “Dialogue” in the 1990s. Today, he says, companies must move to a fifth D – “Do.” On issues like transitioning to a zero-carbon future, “business has to lead.”

“Adopting and embedding ESG metrics is a baseline requirement for an enterprise’s social license to operate now and in the future. Society quite simply demands it.”

There is much more in Liveris’s tool kit—he has chapters on changing geopolitics, the need for long-term thinking, the challenge of accelerating technology, the importance of manufacturing and science. At a time when the rules of business are changing at a dizzying pace, this book is a good place to start.

And speaking of social mission, check out Viv Walt’s fascinating deep dive into how a 100-year-old Danish company, Novo Nordisk, is “taking on the weight of the world.” In this case, purpose and profit clearly can go hand in hand.

More news below. 

Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com

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This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Nicholas Gordon.