A7. Social License to Operate


by Sirkka Korpela and David Boyd-Thomas

"The business of business is business”, sentenced the famous economist Milton Friedman a generation ago. Until recently, this is what most CEOs believed, paying little attention to the opinions of stakeholders, such as local communities, NGOs and critical media. Not any more - most business leaders now understand how important it is for their businesses’ viability to earn and maintain a “Social License to Operate”. In this session we will discuss how companies from as different sectors as financial services, mining, or food processing are learning to listen to and pay attention to the needs of their local stakeholders and what tools they have developed to ensure their presence is accepted as good neighbors."