“Value driven companies are the key to long term success”

On March 15th we welcomed a 100 participants to our breakfast seminar to launch the Human Centered Business Index at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. We listened to our inspiring keynote speaker Caroline Casey, business leader Arne Karlsson and a panel oft three CEO’s leading the way beyond sustainability.

Almost a year worth of preparation, research and hard work lead up to our celebrating the 2016 top tier of Human Centered Businesses. We handed out diplomas to ten Swedish companies who all master the skills of empathy, systems approach, purpose and resilience – which are key to navigate and leverage all of the dimensions of sustainability in decision-making processes.

But what does a Human Centered Businesses look like? And what does it mean to be Human Centered Business?

We invited two speakers and three CEO’s from the frontrunners to take the stage and share examples from their individual experiences of working in and with Human Centered Businesses.

Caroline Casey, serial social entrepreneur, TED speaker and fighter for inclusive business worldwide said:

“Business is the most powerful force for change, it touches every single moment of our lived life – whether you are customer, supplier, member of the community. This is what happens. It’s possible. It’s about engaging the head and the heart. It doesn’t cost you financially to use your heart. But the cost of not doing it for humanity is so appallingly huge.”

Arne Karlsson, a Swedish business leader and board member of several organizations said:

“Companies become tick the box organization, and then they believe that works. And then they attach the same importance to every single item. You need to be structured and organized to be creative and flexible. You need to find the balance. You can think of things productive while you do the routine work.”

The ten companies who make up the top tier of the Index are all very different. For example BoKlok works to build equal access to living well, GodEl is pushing innovation in the electricity industry, Frösunda is role modeling social care tailored to the individual and Saltå Kvarn is breathing new life into the organic food production.

So, Human Centered Businesses can look very different; they may have different strategies, visions and goals. They may work in vastly different fields – but all have one thing in common. They have brought their values to the core of their business, and are leading the way forward with empathy, resilience and purpose – never losing sight of the system in which we all operate.

We believe that becoming a Human Centered Business is what is needed to be relevant and to flourish in the new reality of the market, where all of the aspects of sustainability are intertwined.

Or as Arne Karlsson said:

“Value driven companies are the key to long term success.”