People Empowering Business 
Forum 2023

FIRST SESSION: CEO TALKS

TRANSFORMING THE FORMAL LEADERSHIP INTO AUTHENTIC FOLLOWERSHIP
In short, followership is a reciprocal process of leadership that refers to the willingness to follow within a team or organization. With the past years’ changes, managers and their teams faced the same work reality and this turned into the opportunity of reshaping the formal hierarchy organizational relationships.
The leaders and managers understood that, for being at the forefront of change, they need to embrace the new way of leading, a humanized approach versus a formal one and have to give a facelift to the traditional management styles and forge new cultures and approaches of work.
PEOPLE, AT THE CENTER OF ESG
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards are now one of the primary aspects to be tackled by companies in developing and implementing their business strategies. ESG gained a lot of traction in the past years and it is a dynamic concept, especially due to regulations such as SFDR, CSRD and the EU green taxonomy in place since 2022. The implications of ESG all along the business operations are strong and ESG is also a matter of both public relations and employee engagement. More than 74% of employees believe factors such as organizations reducing their environmental impact, improving the communities where they operate, and adopting sustainable supply chain practices should be part of a company's mission, according to Deloitte. 

Refreshment break

SECOND SESSION: THE NEW WORK PERSPECTIVE

WORK WITH A PURPOSE
Employees seek personal value and purpose at work and the companies are pressed to deliver. In order to create and consolidate an authentic culture of connection within the company, employers and managers have to engage into a continuous dialogue and exercise the empathy within their teams. In the past years, the work reality showed that retention is even harder to be achieved and must be continuously earned. Empowering people’s need to be given a voice in the company, being understood, heard and listened to, results in a strong engagement and leads to a better performance and retaining talents.
MAKING THE BEST OF ACADEMIC & CORPORATE PARTNERSHIP
There is an increasing and engaging approach of different collaborations between the universities and companies in enrolling students and graduates in all kinds of work projects, R&D and internships. Companies have been turning to universities to fill-in the gap of early-stage specialists or for even complex projects, seeking access to the best scientific minds in specific domains. The universities develop their own labs and scientific projects benefiting from the corporate input and this is for the benefit of all stakeholders: the economy, the industries, the young specialists and the evolution of the society all in all.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Workplaces that excel in diversity, equity and inclusion drive better business outcomes for organisations.
Diversity and inclusion are two interconnected and very valuable concepts; however, they are also they are far from interchangeable. Workplaces that excel in diversity, equity and inclusion drive better business outcomes for companies. DEI has become the golden standard for a company’s state oh health and performance