Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government, is joined by André Hoffmann and his co-author, Peter Vanham, to discuss their new book The New Nature of Business: The Path to Prosperity and Sustainability.
The New Nature of Business: The Path to Prosperity and Sustainability lays out a vision where business adopts a "nature agenda" and pursues sustainable, inclusive prosperity. It describes how companies should change their ways to have continued success, and why the current modus operandi is not working. André and Peter present a template for creating “sustainable prosperity”, and case-studies of companies that survived and thrived by opting for change – from Roche to IKEA. In doing so, they suggest a way out of long-standing dilemmas, such as how to balance business needs with impact on nature, shareholders with stakeholders, and short-term vs. long-term profits.
Their book has been described by Richard Branson as “a must-read for any entrepreneur” and by Christine Lagarde as “a compelling blueprint for how companies can reinvent their business models to align with the interests of nature and society – instead of working against them”.
This event is followed by a drinks reception.
Author biographies
André Hoffmann is a Swiss business leader and environmentalist. He believes in business as a force for good, and advocates for a form of capitalism aimed at generating sustainable and inclusive prosperity.
André is the Vice Chair of Roche; a member of the Board of Governors of the World Economic Forum, and a board member at several other businesses and organizations that promote systems change, regenerative practices, and new norms of corporate leadership, including The B Team, SystemIQ, Landbanking Group, and GIST.
In addition to his business engagements, André and his wife Rosalie are co-founders of the Hoffmann Institute at INSEAD, the business school of which he is an alum, and InTent, a non-profit organization that seeks to drive sustainable change in business and society through partnerships between businesses and NGOs. André is the President of the Fondation Tour du Valat, an institute dedicated to wetlands conservation, and previously served as Vice Chair of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Peter Vanham is a Belgian business journalist and author, who writes about the global economy and the people who shape it, as well as concepts such as stakeholder capitalism and sustainability.
As an author, his books include Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy that Works for Progress, People and Planet (with Klaus Schwab, 2021) and Before I Was CEO: Life Stories and Lessons from Leaders Before They Reached the Top (2016). His books have been translated into over a dozen languages.
As a journalist, Peter most recently served as Editorial Director, Leadership, at Fortune, where he is also the co-author of CEO Daily. Prior to that, he was Head Writer and Head of the International Media Council at the World Economic Forum. His articles appeared in dozens of global media, including Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, and Foreign Policy.
