The turning point of the world and its leaders

The ability to reinvent oneself. This is what the pandemic has taught us. Reinventing work, habits, relationships, the way we do business and create value. But not only that. On the one hand, it has made it even more evident that in a globalized world it is the ability to collaborate that makes the difference: between people, between companies, between the public and private sectors, as in the case of vaccines. On the other hand, it has reshaped the role and contours of leaders, starting with the CEOs of companies now called upon to lead their companies but also the change that the megatrends accelerated by the pandemic are imposing on society. From climate change to worsening social inequalities, the fate of the world can no longer be a matter for politics alone. The baton is now firmly in the hands of businesses and their leaders because, more than anyone else, their choices are now capable of setting the right pace for a transition, that can no longer be postponed, towards a sustainable society according to ESG principles. Not only green, therefore, but able to compensate for the differences between rich and poor, south and north of the planet.

As Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock wrote in his letter to CEOs, "It has never been more essential for CEOs to show a consistent voice, a clear purpose, a cohesive strategy and a long-term vision. In this climate of uncertainty, the purpose of your business must be your guiding star." In addition to the ability to re-invent themselves in order to create value, which has always been the basis of capitalism and which today is being reinvented in order to be sustainable, CEOs and companies must make it their business to respond to the needs of all their stakeholders, not just shareholders, and to offer themselves as a response to a world that has made complexity its main characteristic.

Today more than ever before, therefore, the future is in the hands of those individuals and organizations who have the ability to regenerate themselves and the piece of the world surrounding them with a clear sense of purpose. To do this, new ideas and skills are needed to imagine a different way forward. We need talents who accept the challenge and put themselves on the line. Bocconi has always been at the side of these talents to help them find their way, and to do this it regenerates itself year after year, enriching its human capital and opening up to new skills and disciplines: from geopolitics to artificial intelligence, from sustainability to computer science, in order to lead the social sciences towards a green and inclusive world that draws energy from the ongoing digital revolution. This is the world that, together with the Financial Times, we have asked 200 young talents selected from all over the world to imagine as protagonists of the third edition of the FTxBocconi Challenge.