Our lives are based on meeting our basic human needs and survival. Through the years, we invented things to have better lives. But in our quest to acquire more, we have depleted the earth's natural resources and harmed our planet. Our activities have resulted in deepening societal, health and economic problems. Consequently, poverty is getting worse, and it is the poorest of the poor whose lives are greatly affected by our actions.
Michael Porter's TED talk, “Why business can be good at solving social problems,” looked at how we address poverty, hunger and social inequality. What scared me was when he mentioned while there were a lot of awareness campaigns and NGO programs to solve these problems, the progress was slow. There's not enough tax revenue and philanthropic donations to make the goal of eliminating poverty happen. He stated that the solution was through business because all wealth is created by business. Only businesses can create resources through profit. Profit is the magic that can make solutions scalable and the goal of saving these problems attainable.
Bill Gates also introduced his version of the solution to these problems, and that is through finding a new source of clean and safe energy. In the documentary, Inside Bill's Brains, his life in Microsoft and marriage with his wife Melinda were shown and explained, starting from the day he met his wife and married her to how he runs his businesses. His evolution from boy genius turned billionaire to evil monopolist was briefly discussed in the video.
But what struck me was his vision on how much he wanted to change the world through technology. Bill believed that technology could solve every human problem. To address climate change, he founded Terra Power, a company dedicated to developing advanced nuclear reactors that will provide carbon-free energy. Right now, almost all industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, electricity and transportation, produce carbon dioxide as a by-product of energy use. These emissions can linger in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, causing global warming that has resulted in global environmental problems. His company is using a supercomputer that can better manage the advanced nuclear reactors that consume uranium resources in a more efficient, cleaner and safer manner than current nuclear technology.
To address poverty, Bill and his wife started the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on women empowerment, family planning and healthcare for the poor. As a leader, Bill has a lot on his plate, and it's good to know that his wife is there to support and balance his decisions. Melinda mentioned that there are times that Bill feels like the weight of the world is on his shoulders and that as his partner, sometimes, all she could do is to encourage him. Bill believes that whenever there's a challenge, he doesn't stop. Instead, he works harder. It's not what you get or give; it's what you become.
These two videos gave me a glimpse of how business leaders and geniuses work. They have heightened self-discipline and eagerness to learn. Learning is a lifelong process. If we open our eyes to the possibilities we have to save the environment, we could go far and do more. It's not easy to be a leader. Others will persecute you because they couldn't see or understand your purpose and vision.
What we should do as future business leaders is we should pave the way for innovation and positive change through actions. We should make ethical, strategic and humanistic decisions in our companies not only for profit but also to sustain life. We should always consider how we could help people not just in our company or community but also to those who beyond our current sphere of influence (e.g., future generations or the biosphere). We should strategize so that our corporate and personal goals include how we could solve poverty, hunger, gender inequality; provide and improve high quality of education, healthcare, affordable clean energy; provide clean water and sanitation; and lastly develop livable cities and communities that will result in a life-sustaining environment.
It's a long shot, but we could always start from something small, that is from within and let it grow through collaboration and partnerships with the government and international organizations until we reach actual sustainable global development. This is my pledge as a future Lasallian business leader.
The author is an MBA student at the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business, De La Salle University. This article is part of her blog, a requirement for the course, Lasallian Business Leadership with Ethics and CSR. Visit her blog at https://nadz0023.wixsite.com/mybloggs/blog.
The views expressed above are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.
