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New Business Models for a New Future

To address the global challenges that have been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, the public and private sectors will have to collaborate much more closely. Just as governments must act as market makers and shapers, corporations must develop new business models and performance metrics.

MEXICO CITY – COVID-19 has sharpened the focus on many challenges with which the world has long been grappling, including rising inequality, insufficient access to adequate health care and education, and climate change. Long before the pandemic, people had begun to ask hard questions about globalization and technological progress. Despite all the wealth creation and reductions in global poverty in recent decades, economic opportunity has remained elusive for many people, irrespective of their abilities. The resulting fracturing of society poses a grave threat to the long-term health of businesses, citizens, and economies.

For many, the pandemic feels like a watershed moment in global policymaking. It is a rare opening to think big. In the crisis lies an opportunity to establish new foundations for a more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive economy. But what would such an economy – and a resilient society – look like? What principles should guide the difficult choices we must make? How do we ensure that everyone is on board?

Business for Inclusive Growth (B4IG), a strategic partnership between the OECD and 35 major global companies, is one major initiative seeking to change how business is done. Founded in 2019 at the G7 Leaders’ Summit, it brings together private- and public-sector entities to support the development of more inclusive business models, which are in turn the building blocks of a more sustainable long-term economic model.

https://prosyn.org/dqInimM