Leading with Legacy – For executives who think and feel.
Delighted to have you here reading this post. Let me share with you a bit about me and why I am starting this newsletter.
Envision the scale of value beyond wealth that a multinational corporation can rapidly create if deciding to leave a responsible legacy. Now envisage the decision-makers of multiple most impactful businesses globally focusing on that. This is what I am after and working on.
In sum, I have created an approach and a corresponding methodology to help corporates, executives, and boards leave honorable legacies beyond wealth. This allows them to focus their efforts on their core activities instead of separate CSR initiatives, increases employee commitment, improves access to responsible finance, and supports the public image of these businesses and executives. This is part of what I will be writing about.
I have advised multinationals and listed companies. I also worked advising governments globally – mostly finance ministries and worked with Finance Ministers. That is after I spent half a decade developing and leading the national budget strategy of Estonia and developing national strategic management and foresight. I have, also, spent half a decade teaching management and Executive Education courses and supervised 44 theses.
Having worked with governments globally, I am convinced that the rapid change that the world needs can originate from businesses, as I am acutely aware of the timelines of governments. My years of teaching management have given me an excellent background to create and choose methodologies to transform organizations.
I am passionate about management science, organisational transformations, sustainability, and Executive Education. At the same time, I love nature, exotic travel in the wilderness from looking for polar bears not far from the North Pole to wild orangutans in primary rain forests of Borneo (and well, excellent chocolate cakes).
However, I have always been an A+ cum laude honors nerd, who is a rebel at the core. Just before graduating one of the most conservative distinguished high schools with honors, I paraded in its main hall at a beauty contest – in bikinis – raising eyebrows. When working as a senior civil servant at the Ministry of Finance in Estonia, I had a door plate ‘Chief Bitching Officer’ (yes, in English). When participating at a prestigious faculty development program of eleven leading business schools in Europe, North America and Asia, I went there with a question what were the values being taught at these highly regarded schools and I ended up holding a surprise session for the participants on the subject, as no-one had viewed it from that perspective. When researching ethics in classic law enforcement, I ended up creating a theory and methodology of green integrity in law enforcement to help to fight environmental crime globally with the help of the police forces, as that connection of disciplines did not exist yet. The list goes on. In short – I just do not recognize the limitations of current ways of thinking and go and create what is missing.
While the world is enthusiastically talking about corporate purpose, I, once again, think it is not enough, or even necessarily helpful, for adjusting our course when we have solely 9 years left to avoid irreversible climate change. I believe there is a pragmatic way that corporates can use, and I am opening a discussion about that. Yet, because it counters the current mainstream fad, it is much easier to write about it on my own terms, than offering these views to flagship business publications. This is why I am starting this publication. To share some of these thoughts with those interested. Provoking thought and helping to critically view the latest suggestions in the field. I believe it is helpful particularly for the executives and board members of multinationals, as well as asset managers.
At the same time, I am passionate about seeing executives and board members as they are – human beings first. This is something that many of the current approaches appear to forget. So, these views find their way into my writings also. I seek to support executives and board members by provoking thoughts and touching on subjects that make them human.
As I am working with this approach in parallel with the decisionmakers of multinationals, state-owned enterprises, as well as major banks, I will not be writing here weekly. But my intention is to share insights monthly for free. And I will be writing more frequently, if possible.
Once again, so wonderful to have you reading this and happy to write for these interested. I love to have conversations about these subjects, so do like, comment, ask questions, or share these posts for this conversation to have a wider reach and an even more interesting discussion.
If it sounds like it could be interesting or speak to you, do sign up!
This post was originally published in Substack on 04. December, 2020 as Introducing ….