Summa & Friends

If your workplace is all love and hallelujah, says Gianpiero Petriglieri, Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD, and one of the 50 most influential management thinkers in the world, then it’s a cult. If you want your organization to be high performing, you need some friction and debate, because we can’t always be real and feel good. “My passion is this idea of humanizing leadership, of making space for all that is messy and contradicting and complicated in people and in the systems they inhabit.”Real leadership, says Gianpiero, is caring about people and bringing them to life in a way that isn’t just efficient, but is sustainable. How can we help each other? How do we hold each other up? How do we support and challenge each other as we build the kinds of organizations that we want to build, not just to invest in, but to live in. To find out more, download and listen to this episode of Summa & Friends.On today’s podcast:Put your people before purposeThe need to be able to shift paceWhat makes a leader in our timesHow to become a better leaderDon’t let anyone call you a future leader

Norway plans to be a low carbon economy by 2050, but the transition to get there keeps getting delayed, says Martin Skancke, Chairman of the Norwegian government's commission on transition to a low carbon economy, and Chairman of PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) and board member in several companies. We’re thinking too short term, says Martin, we aren’t looking at a long time horizon and therefore we’re increasing the risk as we run out of time. What needs to happen is for all stakeholders to connect the bigger picture with their plan for how to get there. In this episode of Summa & Friends, Martin discusses where his passion and deep commitment to help resolve the climate crisis came from, what managers of listed equities can learn from managers of private equity in terms of addressing corporate governance issues, before delving into his work around Norway’s transition to a low carbon economy. “We started at the opposite end, we started by incentivising everyone to buy their own electric car, and we'll find that policy will be difficult to reverse. But if we had thought more systematically about a solution that has a natural place in 2050, we would have maybe thought about it differently.”To find out more, download and listen to this episode. On today’s podcast:Developing a passion to resolve the climate crisisNorway’s transition to a low carbon economy The global institutional failure to find a solutionThe risk side of transitioning too lateWhy the world needs more climate policy action

We need strong private equity leaders to tackle the current challenges in the private equity investing space, says Tanya Carmichael, systems thinker, private equity investor, and return-on-impact advisor for ESG in PE & Pension Funds. And that leadership has to be authentic and genuine, inclusive and open. In this episode of Summa & Friends, Tanya discusses how investment leaders can amplify their impact, how they can leverage holistic systems thinking to embed ESG initiatives in their private equity investing, and how they’ll be rewarded for their efforts both now and in the reimagined future.“People love being part of the solution and being part of this. A lot of leaders I see are worried about this uncharted territory. It's important that leaders just admit: ‘I don't know how to get there and we need to do this together’.”To find out more, download and listen to this latest episode, and read more about Tanya here: www.tanyacarmichael.comOn today’s podcast:The convergence of challengesHow leaders of a reimagined future will be rewarded How to navigate unchartered territoryGlobal problems need collaborative solutions

Over 20% of Europe’s CO2 emissions are a result of a linear economy, a number which can be reduced by 55% if we transition to a circular economy, says Bertrand Camus, former CEO of French multinational utility company SUEZ, now partner at Summa Equity. But that’s not the only reason to make the change… Moving to a circular economy has a potential value creation opportunity of between EUR 1-2 trillion, not to mention all the jobs that go along with that. And given the size and magnitude of what needs to be achieved to get there, there is room for anyone who wants to play a role in this great journey we need to embark on. So, how can you get involved? To learn more about Summa’s work in waste management, and to hear Bertrand discuss the theory of change, and reveal the massive opportunities that lie in the circular economy, download and listen to this episode today. “It's one of the most fantastic investment opportunities that I've seen, where you can really invest to create value and create jobs, and address the resource problem that we have, and the climate change issues and CO2 emissions that we have.”On today’s podcast:What the future looks like Understanding the theory of changeThe opportunities in a circular economy What needs to be done to make circularity a reality in Europe Links:https://summaequity.com/readings/eu-circular-markets-could-be-worth-eur-1.5tn-by-2040-and-save-650-mt-co2e-per-year

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been described as a business plan for the world, highlighting 17 broad problem areas for which the world needs to find solutions. While originally intended for governments, the UN SDGs is also a powerful framework for investors who have both financial and sustainability objectives.  Creating truly sustainable portfolios is hard and requires a fundamental rethink of the entire investment process to incorporate impact as a third dimension, alongside risk and return. So, says Carsten Stendevad, co-CIO for sustainability at Bridgewater who shares his perspective on the challenges and rewards of building sustainable portfolios in today’s episode. On today’s podcast: ●       Bridgewater’s sustainable investing journey ●       How Bridgewater applies their systematic research approach to sustainability ●       Assessing net zero alignment – from macro to individual players●       Balancing return, risk and impact to achieve strong financial and sustainability outcomes●       Reflections on a sustainable future

Imagine playing a video game where data about you in the moment is being collected with sensor technology, performance metrics, emotional responses, body movements, brain activity. And this is all used in real time to guide the environment you're experiencing, personalizing both the challenges and rewards to improve your cognition. No, this isn’t the plot of a sci-fi movie. We’re in the midst of a cognition crisis and experiences are a powerful way of changing our brain, says Adam Gazzaley, neuroscientist, neurologist, inventor, author, photographer, entrepreneur, investor, and creator of the first ever digital medicine, and the first ever FDA cleared digital treatment for children with ADHD. In this incredible episode of Summa & Friends, Adam explains why the cognition crisis is getting worse on a global scale, especially for our children, and why his digital medicine was born out of a frustration at the lack of research and treatment that we as a species should have developed by now. To find out more, download and listen. On today’s podcast:What is digital medicine and who is it for?What is the cognition crisisWhy we need a multi-modal approach to improving cognitionThe enduring nature of experiential medicine

Sir Ronald (Ronnie) Cohen, a preeminent philanthropist, venture capitalist, private equity investor, and impact pioneer is driving the global Impact Revolution. Ronnie's nearly two decades of initiatives in impact investment have catalyzed global efforts towards social and environmental good, through business and investment.With advances in technology, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, Ronnie says the impact revolution has never been more possible. The fact that technology allows for granular measurement of a company's impact in monetary terms, is truly a game-changer for impact transparency.In this episode of Summa & Friends, Ronnie explains why the impact revolution will see a huge acceleration in the coming years, and how businesses can optimize to ensure risk, return, and impact are balanced. To find out more, download and listen today. On today’s podcast:What is the impact revolution?How to accelerate the translation to impact economiesFrom social investment to impact economiesDon’t confuse impact investing with philanthropyMake impact the center of your focus

Why does it matter that we learn to navigate failure? Because, says Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School and author of global bestseller, Psychological Safety, and soon, her upcoming book The Right Kind of Wrong: The science of failing well, the only mistake we make in this life is not trying. “We live in a time of increasing uncertainty and interdependence. Either one of those factors creates the inevitability of some failures along the way. So we have to learn to manage them and navigate them.”In this episode of Summa & Friends, Amy explores the difference between mistakes and failures, the importance of failure for innovation, the value of honest feedback, and more importantly, the need for humans to be open to failure. Not a single one of us is infallible, says Amy, it is possible to thrive as a fallible human being. To find out more, download and listen today. On today’s podcast:The difference between mistakes and failuresWhy failure can be strategicNavigating the ladder of inferenceHow to increase organizational psychological safetyThe importance of a growth mindset