1、The Fourth Industrial Revolution At the intersection of readiness and responsibility Introduction: Great awakening 2 Executive summary 3 Strategy: When strategy leads, success follows 5 Societal impact: Recognition of business social responsibility 8 Talent: A new investment priority for business 11
2、 Technology: Leaders continue to retreat from disruption 15 Summary: Time to accelerate 18 Endnotes 20 Contents 2 Introduction: Great awakening S OME HAVE LONG argued that corporations should strive for profits above all else, that making money for shareholders is a companys sole reason for being.1
3、But as the transformation to Industry 4.0 continues, more business leaders are starting to see a bigger pictureand a larger responsibility. Building on the last generations corporate social responsibility movement, a new form of capitalism seems to be emerging, one that considers a broader group of
4、stakeholders and measures societal impact alongside financial performance. In August 2019, the CEOs of nearly 200 multinational corporations signed a statement issued by the Business Roundtable publicly pledging to lead their companies for the benefit of customers, employees, suppliers, and communit
5、ies in addition to shareholders.2 That sentiment was echoed in The Universal Purpose of a Company in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a statement offered by World Economic Forum in December 2019. In working to keep up with the pace of technological change, business leaders are also beginning to app
6、reciate the need to nurture a culture of lifelong learning, equipping their workforces with the skills necessary to succeed in the future. And thanks in part to pressure from customers and employees, executives are expressing deep concerns about climate change and resource scarcity, topics that were