7th YGL Annual Summit 2011– Dalian, China Blog # 7
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What is the definition of quality growth?
Following our previous session on Quality Growth, we held a workshop in which groups pondered over the definition for quality growth. Here are some of the ideas that surfaced:
- Equal growth is essential. We need to redefine what sustainable growth is. Current thinking is that 3.5% growth is the number that is sustainable.
- Include women in quality growth. Here are some ideas for working towards this:
- The Oath Project (YGL business oath) could include a principle related to the inclusion of women in the charter.
- Encourage an ISO certification or special logo for companies that have reached a certain level of women at board levels and senior management
- Regulation and legislation can lead to better numbers of women in leadership positions (like Norway) on boards and in senior positions. These numbers must be measured, monitored and published.
- Shift the focus and understanding of CSR to be transformed into corporate social innovation.
- Add new measurements into what growth means, especially in terms of the percentage of people fulfilling their full potential. Happiness could be a key metric. YGLs have dignity day, there’s earth day…What about a “happiness” day? We imagined that since there are 5 million mobile phones each mobile company sends out a simple survey on happiness day asking their subscribers how happy they are on a scale from 1-10. From this we can create a worldwide index and measurement of happiness.
- Let’s identify the end point of quality growth. 3 S’s 2 G’s: shared-sustainable-strong, green-globally centered growth that pays attention to peoples’ happiness.
- Economies must learn from nature. It’s the most robust and successful market on the planet.
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