Name: How This CEO Balances Profit And People
Uploaded: 2017-09-28
Duration: 4 min 30 s
Description: Marsh and McLennan Companies CEO Dan Glaser discusses leading with purpose.

Dan, many companies are now talking about leading with purpose. Doing more to improve the world. Why is this coming up now? Why is everybody talking about it? Employees have changed. They're much more active. They're much more interested in a company that has values. I mean people have opportunities to work in many different places. They choose where they work. They choose where they give their careers. And companies have to literally think about, well, what is our reason for existing, like, why do we exist? A lot of companies can easily say what they do and how they do it. They really have to start thinking about, why do we do what we do? Well we are seeing that many more business leaders do want to do good for their communities and to solve some of these social problems. And they are letting go of this notion that our primary purpose is to make profits and a good return for our shareholders, but still. How do you help advise CEOs to explain that to their shareholders, to their investors, and to their employees? Well, if you look at a presentation that I would've made five or six years ago, I would've said there's a lot of different issues, there's a lot variables, there's a lot of KPIs. Profit is our most important motivation. I wouldn't say that anymore. I don't feel it myself and part of it is just living in the world, experiencing the types of calamities that have existed, the. Gut wrenching changes in society, that came after the financial crisis and we're still in the aftermath of that, so, I've to say as a CEO, I changed and I changed my view and so that same presentation today, I would still say profit, but I would say profit and purpose, that you have to stand for something. The way I look at things, our colleagues Our clients and our communities come first. So who's a role model in this? Who's getting it right? I heard Jamie Dimon is speaking this morning. I think he really gets it. Essentially, being local, being in your community, supporting your community, using some of your Corporate profitability to recycle it within a community. I think is vital and very important. So I would certainly signal that JPMorgan seems to be getting it right. You're talking about means that you have to change the culture. You have to change the mindset. That's hard to do. It takes a different kind of leadership right? I think that if you're going to be the CEO of a company today, you are going to think like this. You can't have an innovative company where it's hierarchical. It almost certainly has to be about circles, or working on project teams, and having the ability at every level to contribute to that project, as opposed to Taking an order or taking an instruction, and so I do think that the actual form of corporations in terms of hierarchy versus in a more fluidity is changing rapidly. Well as much as everybody's talking about all of these and doing all of these [ UNKNOWN ], how do you measure success? How do you know if you're in the right track? How do you know if you really are doing good? You have to resist the urge of grabbing the early wins and saying we're done. This is foundational, this is something that as you mentioned is cultural within your own company. And so you measure culture by looking at colleague turnover rates. Colleague engagement levels. The amount in social media that is supportive of your companies ideals and values, as opposed to that is negative about it. I think colleagues are seeking leadership from companies to have a stance which is based upon the company's own values. So are you saying that the CEO's role has changed That it's just not a formal role of hitting up a company, you have to have a true north, a moral standard. Absolutely. I think that a CEO today literally should recognize themself as the servant of there company. Not even the leader of their company. A servant, a fiduciary to their company and CEOs who operate that way with humility recognize that it's not about them, it's about the people who work for the organization and. And it's about the clients and it's about the community. Those are the core constituencies. You do that right, shareholders will be fine. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Marsh and McLennan Companies CEO Dan Glaser discusses leading with purpose.