By all our current standards of success (read: economic), the last 60-70 years of our existence on this planet have been unprecedented. While the population of the world has grown ~ three-fold, the world economy has grown 13 times, making the average person in the world about four times richer. Even if we look at world averages on many social parameters, such as the percentage of children in school, the number of people dying due to malaria, the average life expectancy of people and many more, they have improved over this period. Yet there are enough conversations around the world, including in all the big business management schools (including my own Alma Mater), on the need for more responsible, more ethical, more inclusive leadership. Why is that the case?
Despite such phenomenal economic growth (or maybe because of how it has come about):
* 1 percent of the global population owns more wealth than the balance 99 percent
* 1/9 people don't have enough to eat (10 percent of wasted food can solve hunger)
* 1/4 people live on less than $3 a day
* 1/6 of children between 12-15 years out of school (mostly girls)
* 1/3 people without a toilet, 1/11 without safe drinking water, and so on.
While these are world statistics, even if we look at India today:
* 48 percent of Class V students can read Class II textbooks
* We are ranked 102/119 countries on the Global Hunger Index, 129/189 countries on Human Development Index, 147/157 countries on Commitment to Reducing Inequality
* Almost half the women in India today are anemic, and we are home to the largest number of malnourished children in the world, and so on.
"We need leaders with a firm commitment to a society based on universal values of equity, justice, compassion, and dignity for all"
What's the problem with this, a lot of people say! As the world continues growing economically, the benefits will keep trickling down to continue improving the lives of people! How does it matter even if the speed of making this happen is so slow, and how does it matter that all this growth has created such huge inequity in the world? Even if we overlook basic principles of fairness and equity on which human relationships should be based, this notion of endless growth is based on the basic premise that our planet has unlimited resources that can support and facilitate this growth. It is this myth that is now being challenged across the world.
There is a growing realization and acceptance that we live on a planet with finite resources. Our planet, for the last 11,000 years has provided us with all the basic necessities for our existence from clean drinking water, fertile soil, bountiful forest cover, rich bio-diversity in species, stable climate and acceptable temperatures, and many more (this epoch being called Holocene). However, our unprecedented and fairly ruthless economical growth over the last couple of centuries has completely destroyed this equilibrium of planetary and human existence. Scientific studies across the world have identified certain boundary conditions for the continued existence of our planet, and increasingly we are breaching many of these boundaries (e.g., Synthetic fertilizers being added at twice the safe levels, Forested land much below danger levels (62 percent vs 75 percent), Carbon dioxide much above safe levels (350 parts per million) and so on), which increases the risk of our continued existence on the earth. The earth overshoot day, which marks the day in our calendar year when humanity has used more natural resources for the year than what earth can naturally regenerate, for 2019 was July 29, which means that post this date we started eating into the 'capital/principal' of the resources that earth has for us having already exhausted the 'interest'!
If one, therefore, comes to the realization that the earth cannot support endless economic growth, it starts debunking the entire story of a 'trickle-down' actually ensuring lives of dignity for all over a period of time. This is probably one of the Greatest Stories of All Time that we've been propagating to millions of people living in the hope of a better life sooner rather than later.
The tragedy of this narrative is that we possibly have enough resources available on the earth today to take care of everyone. So it might be more of a design and a distribution issue rather than a resource and a scarcity issue. We just need a new lens of looking at our existence in this world, a new lens of defining what success means for us as a planetary ecosystem (moving out from our exclusive anthropocentric existence). We need a new mantra of leadership, leaders who have a deep understanding of society and its complexities, a well-rounded view on the kind of 'development' which is much more multi-faceted compared to a unidimensional economic centred view of growth. Leaders who are able to understand, analyze, and articulate social issues and solutions from a more holistic systems view of the world (rather than looking at things in silos) - thereby building on the need to shape collaborations and partnerships rather than evangelizing the idea of competition as the holy grail for success. We need leaders with a firm commitment to a society based on universal values of equity, justice, compassion, and dignity for all. We need leaders who can help evolve a new narrative of success in our world, which will help us thrive and not just grow, and leaders who can build the right kind of organization to make this happen.
Gaurav Shah, Founder
Gaurav Shah is the Founder of the Indian School of Development Management (ISDM), a pioneering institution established to develop the discipline of Development Management. Gaurav holds an M.Sc. degree in Economics as well as a B.E in Computer Science from BITS, Pilani. He also has an MBA degree in strategy and finance from IIM, Calcutta.
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