7th YGL Annual Summit 2011– Dalian, China Blog # 7

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:

1. The Oath Project (YGL business oath) could include a principle related to the inclusion of women in the charter.
2. Encourage an ISO certification or special logo for companies that have reached a certain level of women at board levels and senior management
3. 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.