Conference Presentation, Panel
Leadership and Corporate Culture
- Starbucks anticipates adapting store protocols based on local virus spread until a vaccine or therapeutics are available at scale, utilizing AI to recommend measures based on daily data, while projecting a 30% or higher BIPOC population at specific company levels over the next three years and linking executive bonuses to inclusion and diversity goals.
- Starbucks aims to generate five to 10 times crop yield improvements for farmers through agronomy research and expects long-term investment in shareholder and partner trust to yield dividends for decades.
- Walmart expects an accelerated shift to omnichannel shopping to create a permanent step change in customer behavior and forecasts that a new generation of leaders will emerge from the pandemic's high-pressure environment.
- Mastercard projects e-commerce will operate at approximately 50% higher levels than pre-pandemic norms if normalization continues, identifying the post-vaccine period in the second part of the next year as the start of a "real growth phase."
- Mastercard acknowledges a K-shaped recovery where 60% of small businesses had no electronic transactions during containment and now about 20% have closed, warning that the exhaustion of PPP and unemployment funds may require additional fiscal stimulus.
- Walmart plans to extend payment terms for suppliers and integrate them onto e-commerce platforms in India and the US, alongside commitments to achieve zero emissions without carbon offsets globally by 2040.
- Mastercard has committed to 16 weeks of fully paid equal paternity and maternity leave for all employees and plans to contribute 10% to 401(k) plans if employees save 6%, while aiming to reach 1 billion people in the financial mainstream by 2025, including 50 million micro-SMEs and 25 million women entrepreneurs.
- Mastercard plans to launch a "priceless planet coalition" to plant 100 billion trees by 2025 via consumer education on carbon footprints using an S&P index and text messaging, and intends to tie inclusion goals to senior management compensation.
- Mastercard expects that demonstrating delivery on specific commitments is necessary to negate credibility concerns before results are shown, while Walmart intends to trial refills and circular economy practices in the UK and eliminate carrier bags in Mexico in the new year.
- Leaders from Starbucks, Walmart, and Mastercard emphasize a shift in corporate social responsibility to integrate planet, people, and profit as central to the business agenda, anticipating that customers will choose companies based on community impact and that ESG metrics will be standardized for the investor community.
- Stakeholders predict that future business success requires a "common interest paradigm" and a "Decency Quotient" to empower employees, noting that progress on societal issues has been hindered by a lack of effectiveness rather than a lack of will.