Take on Tomorrow

People don’t want to be taken for granted. That’s the message coming from employees around the world, who are finding new confidence and empowerment in the shifting world of work. Their call to employers is to listen, learn, and engage. So, how can businesses and employees find fresh opportunities in this era of new expectations? And can they find ways to thrive together?

Hosts Lizzie O’Leary and Ayesha Hazarika speak with Standard Chartered’s group head of human resources, Tanuj Kapilashrami, and the joint global leader for PwC's people and organization practice, Pete Brown, to dig into what workers really want and how today’s leaders can tap into the power of their people for the future.

If you want less of something, tax it more. That’s what many governments have been trying to do with carbon. But carbon pricing is controversial and difficult to implement technically. So, given the urgency to reduce the use of fossil fuels, reduce emissions and reach more aggressive climate goals, should businesses prepare for an expansion in carbon taxation? Should it be a priority for people who care about climate change?

Hosts Lizzie O’Leary and Ayesha Hazarika talk with Danae Kyriakopoulou—from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment—about the role this kind of tool can play in the race to net zero, and with Ian Milborrow, a sustainability and climate-change partner with PwC UK, about what business needs to know.

Stakeholder capitalism is the idea that businesses have a responsibility to groups other than their shareholders. But is that really capitalism? Why are so many businesses embracing this idea? And, given that stakeholders often have conflicting views, can it work in practice?

Lizzie and Ayesha are joined by Alison Taylor, the director of Ethical Systems at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and Richard Oldfield, PwC’s global markets leader, to discuss what stakeholder capitalism means for businesses and for society.

The reporting of corporate data matters—and not just to accountants and stock analysts. The way in which companies make progress when dealing with climate change, building more diverse workforces, and complying with regulation has become a differentiating factor. Stakeholders of all kinds are demanding information that is more detailed, more readily measured, and more easily verified. Understanding how reporting builds trust is a key item on leaders’ agendas.

This week, we get an important download on the power of reporting. We’ll hear from Emmanuel Faber, chair of the International Sustainability Standards Board; Eelco van der Enden, CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative; and Nadja Picard, PwC’s global reporting leader, and listen in on a panel discussion they held at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos. Then, Nadja joins Lizzie and Ayesha to discuss what it all means for society.

There’s an old saying: people overestimate the impact of technology in the short term and underestimate it in the long term. Is that what’s happening with crypto? There’s a lot of news about cryptocurrencies, but are we paying too little attention to the long-term impacts of the underlying technology?

Joined by Sheila Bair, the former chair of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and Vicki Huff Eckert, a retired PwC US partner who served as vice chair for PwC’s US technology, media, and telecommunications sector, we’ll ponder how blockchain, and the cryptocurrencies that exist because of it, could affect financial systems and transform business and society—ready or not.