The pandemic crisis could be a “CEO moment” for business leaders to fundamentally change the way they lead and work with employees and give rise to “stakeholder capitalism”, said Keven Sneader, Global Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company.

If a large number of CEOs behave and lead differently, the CEO moment could become a “CEO movement, one that could create better, higher achieving, more purposeful, more human, and better-connected leaders,” Sneader said in his keynote address on the “Leadership for a New Era” at the 21st World Knowledge Forum hosted by Maekyung Media Group in central Seoul.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to evolve the very nature and impact of the CEO role,” said Sneader enthusiastically after consulting corporate management since joining McKinsey since 1989.

Fully embracing “stakeholder capitalism” adds to the new CEO role, he said. Companies should fulfill their obligations to shareholder but not at the expense of other stakeholders – employees, customers, community, suppliers, and society at large, he warned, adding that “tending to multiple stakeholders and managing for long term is not only good for stakeholders but makes business sense.”

“Networks have a unique potential to enable the CEO movement more broadly, challenging and supporting peers to aim more highly, and assuring the issues tackled with conviction and at scale.” he said.

In the following session moderated by James Kim, chairman and CEO of AMCHAM Korea, he advised leaders to “unlock bureaucratic chains of command” and speed up decision-making to have the agility to react quickly to changing circumstance.

By Choi Mira

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