Paul Polman

The rules have changed. The institutions that held the global economy together are under strain. Trust in business, government, and media is at historic lows. And yet the pressure on leaders to retreat — to focus inward, manage the quarter, and leave the big questions to someone else — has never been stronger. Paul Polman spent a decade as CEO of one of the world's most scrutinized companies resisting exactly that pressure. In this talk he makes the case — plainly, commercially, and from direct experience — that the leaders who look away right now will pay for it. And that those who don't have a real opportunity to build something that lasts.

What audiences take away:

• Why short-termism is not a safe harbor — and what it actually costs companies that default to it.
• How Unilever delivered 290% shareholder returns over a decade by holding a long-term course when others didn't.
• What trust actually looks like as a business asset — and how you build or destroy it faster than you think.
• The specific leadership decisions that separate companies that endure from those that merely survive.
• Why the next decade will reward the leaders who had the courage to act when it was still uncomfortable to do so.