Name: 3Pillar Global CEO: 'We need to put the humanity back into business'
Uploaded: 2020-02-11
Duration: 5 min 52 s
Description: David DeWolf says employees and customers are just as important as shareholders.

[ MUSIC ] David, let's begin talking about three pillar many people may not be as familiar with the kinds of services that your software company provides. So, what's the company's mission? What's amazing is that they may not be familiar with three pillar but they aren't familiar with our software. We build software products that help companies to compete in this digital economy. And we estimate that between 50 and 75 % of Americans actually use our software every day. Things like if you've ever watched Downtown Abbey on PBS, you've used our software. If you've ever parked in a city using ParkMobile, you've used our software. Those types of products in these digitally native, in these evolving companies that are becoming digital. That's what we asked them to do. As you know, there's been a lot of discussion recently about the business roundtables decision to change the definition of what is the mission of American corporations. And so the purpose that they're now saying is no longer to make money for shareholders. Now, it's a commitment To serve all stakeholders, what is the significance of this development? I think that the significance of what the roundtable has done is calling into question, what is the ends and what is the means. For so long we have operated against this idea that maximizing shareholder value is the ends. And we may need to invest in our employees to accomplish that or invest in our communities because that's what's needed to maximize shareholder value. I think what the roundtable is done is turned this on its head and said, that is it now, not that all constituencies matter, and that we need to put the humanity back into business. I think it also comes down to how do you measure success? How do you measure That doing good is good for business or maybe not. Right, right. Well, I think good for businesses a question, right? In a world where good for business always equals Maximizing shareholder return, that has one definition. Right, in a world where our job is to serve the communities we live in. To serve the employees we work with. Right, to help individuals to rise through the ranks. To get more participation in the economic success of businesses. There are different metrics that we can look at. One of the things we look at in our own business, I can tell you how many entrepreneurs we've had that have left and started their own businesses, and that gets us excited. We can talk about the individuals who. Started as young employees right out of school and work their way through the ranks of our organization. Those types of things should as excite us as much and we should look at those metrics, not just the metrics that tell us whether the shareholders are getting every turn But the metrics that point to the rest of the constituencies as well. Is there a downside risk then for successful companies to keep on doing business the way they have been successfully for decades? What is it that we say all of the time? The only constant is change right? Change is always happening, and there is no doubt that to me organizations need to embrace the change that is happening right now cuz I think it is for the better. And by doing so, I think what they'll have the ability to do is stay relevant. There is a reason why the fortune 500 is turning over as often as it is. Right? It's because if you don't stay up with the changing times, if you don't embrace new ideas Somebody else will surpass you, and figure out a better way to do it. And so yeah, I think there's a lot of downside risk, for those who continue to be maniacally focused, on serving one constituency, the shareholder. And everybody, to stay relevant today, I think, has to embrace this idea that all of my constituents matter. And their conversation, now, has turning beyond just what companies are doing. There's Coming into question about how much has our capitalism, philosophy? How well has it done for society? What are your thoughts on this? Yeah, I think that's a big question. You said a key word there, which was philosophy and I think Defining what we mean by capitalism, all right? Defining and pushing into the philosophy behind it. If you look at it just purely in terms of free markets, there is no doubt that capitalism has created all sorts of wealth. The question is, how has that wealth been dispersed throughout all people? And does it only serve one constituency or again, does it surge all of the constituencies? And so what i see is movement such as the Conscious Capitalism Movement that are coming out and say, there is a better way to do business. There can be free markets, we can operate within a capitalistic society, but be smart and be noble about that capitalism. And I really think that there's something to that. I think it's an evolution of capitalism that's absolutely necessary. So that again, we are putting that human person back into it as opposed to just focusing on the dollar. What do you think is gonna be the next big idea For the next decade. One of the ideas that I'm most fascinated by, especially in this world where we focus so much on STEM education, science and technology is the idea that what we're missing right now is that humanities and that humanities are gonna make a resurgence and you're gonna start to see in our formal education a reemergence Not necessarily just of the humanities, but how do they intersect with the STEM education that we're bringing to the table now? I think this is important and relevant because of the world we live in with AI these days. When you look at machine learning and artificial intelligence, you see all sorts of moral and ethical questions being raised about how does this impact jobs, how does it impact people? And I think we need Young professionals to be grounded in humanities to help us to navigate how these technologies apply to our human lives. And I think in 10 years we're going to look back and really wonder what were we doing 10 years ago where we were operating with such a focus on science and technology. Without having the ground in critical thinking and the humanities. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

3Pillar Global CEO: 'We need to put the humanity back into business'

Leadership

DeWolf says value to shareholders is just one success metric

3Pillar Global CEO: 'Put the humanity back into business'

David DeWolf says employees and customers are just as important as shareholders.