Ideas worth spreading

How businesses can serve everyone, not just shareholders

1,578,074 views | Dame Vivian Hunt • TED2020

Companies worldwide are pledging to play a more meaningful role in the well-being of their employees, customers and the environment. How can they turn their promises into action? From creating a representative boardroom to committing to measurable sustainability goals, business leader Dame Vivian Hunt discusses the necessary changes companies can make to embrace stakeholder capitalism -- and shares how it could change business for good.

Companies worldwide are pledging to play a more meaningful role in the well-being of their employees, customers and the environment. How can they turn their promises into action? From creating a representative boardroom to committing to measurable sustainability goals, business leader Dame Vivian Hunt discusses the necessary changes companies can make to embrace stakeholder capitalism -- and shares how it could change business for good.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Dame Vivian Hunt

Dame Vivian Hunt

Business leader

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Dame Vivian Hunt's professional journey has taken her from expanding midwifery services in Senegal to helping private, public and third sector leaders across the globe strategize and transform during extraordinary times.

Gwendolyn Brooks | Broadside Lotus Press, 1971 | Book

Family Pictures

Gwendolyn Brooks was the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize and first Black woman to be poet consultant to the Library of Congress. The quote I use in my TED Talk is from the poem "Paul Robeson," written in 1971 as an ode to the baritone artist, actor and activist. The collection Family Pictures is one of her lesser known works, short but powerful and poised.

John Browne, Robin Nuttall and Tommy Stadlen | PublicAffairs, 2016 | Book

Connect: How Companies Succeed by Engaging Radically with Society

Drawing on the experience of John Browne, former CEO of BP, and the insight of two McKinsey experts, this book articulates and explores the recurring rift between big business and society, offering a practical manifesto for reconciliation through extensive interviews with Sheryl Sandberg, Tim Berners Lee and former UK prime minister, Tony Blair. It is an evidence-based primer for stakeholder capitalism.

Shirley Horn | Verve Records, 1993 | Listen

"Green (It's Not Easy Being Green)"

A beautiful song with a simple message that everyone, young and old, can relate to.

Vivian Hunt | Financial Times, 2020 | Article

"Change how boards work to achieve true diversity"

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.