Technology-Fueled Business as a Force for Good in the World

0:00 The topics and opinions express in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements radio show, programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. What's Working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their highest potential.

0:45 Business can be such a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we all want Working on Purpose. Now, here's your host, Doctor Elise Cortes. Welcome back to the Working on Purpose Program. Thanks for turning again this week. Great to have you. This show has been brought to you with passionate pride since February of twenty fifteen. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. If we've not met before, I'm an organizational psychologist and local therapist, speaker and author. My team and I at Gusto now help companies and liven and fortify their operations by articulating their purpose and building inspirational leaders and cultures activated by meaning and purpose to turn those companies from a flatline EKG to a vibrant destination workplace. There, people are intrinsically motivated to perform with their best, can grow into their fuller potential, and are committed to stay and dynamically deliver on the company's mission. You can learn more about us and how we can work together at gustodashnow dot com or Eliscortes dot com. Now getting into today's program, we have with us Marga Howick, who is a three time CEO, currently board member and chair and founder of Business for Good. She's an international thought leader and she talks about sustainable business and capital. Her latest which we'll be talking about today is Tech for Good Imagine solving the world's greatest challenges. She joins us today from the Netherlands, Marga, welcome to Working on Purpose. Great, thanks for inviting me, Alice, it's a pleasure.

2:13 You are so welcome. And as I said before we got on air, I'll tell you woman, this thing that you created is phenomenal. As I said, that only is literally a heavy lift to pick up and put up into the air because it's so dense. But the intellectual rigor, Marga, I'm so impressed. There's so much information in here, and that's the intention. Bob. That's great to hear. That's a beautiful compliment. Thank you. Oh, you're very welcome. It's an honor to share with my guests around the world. They need to learn from you. So, as I mentioned, I also am a conscious capitalist. I serve on the board of Conscious Capitalism here in Dallas. My first two business books are certainly undergirded by conscious capitalist principles and tenants. What I love about your work, Marga, is I appreciate that you're really threading through the power of business to solve you know, unwieldy you know you and sustainable you know, goals kinds of problems. Just really impressive what you've done and inspiring. Yeah, we're aligned on that at least, because conscious capitalism is in a way also the foundation under my thinking, the capitalistic system in itself works well, which means that you know, we can produce economic products and impact on society, but we have to do it in a conscious way, and we have to balance you know, on the one hand, creating value for the world and financial value, and actually they're positively synergized. It's not or, but it's actually end So those two thoughts definitely come together also in my book m and Beautifully.

3:47 So one thing that I was struck by what you said in your book. There there were so many things in here that I took down for notes, but I was amazed when you said, you know, of course, and I aligned with that. Companies have a part that have impact and help and can help lead the way. And you then go on to say, understounding, sixty nine of the world's one hundred largest economies by revenue are companies, not countries. Yeah. Yeah, very different from the past. So the power, the amount of capital that is actually around the world in private hands has grown significantly. And thanks for pulling that thought out, because it's actually important because if you look at the challenges we have around the world and how we're going to solve them. I mean, a big key is in the hands of business. So we can all look to governments and NGOs and we should collaborate with all stakeholders. But business has huge impact, and you know, leadership is a privilege and comes with a lot of responsibility. In this case it does. Indeed, so listeners and viewers. What Margat has done in her books its astoundings. First, she's situated the seventeen sustainable development goals by the UN There are seventeen of them. She's interlinked them to the objectives in the book. And then what she's done is she's situated what eight or nine technologies and then nine. And then what she's done is she's then given us an incredible numerous examples of businesses that are embracing and using those technologies to

5:24 solve these really hairy sustainable development goals. That's how the book is put together. So what I want to do next, Marga, to the extent that we have the time, I'd love to cover as many of those nine technologies as we can and then give our listeners and viewers, you know, just a glimpse of some of the ways that these technologies are being used, which I found incredibly inspiring. I have to say, shall we Yeah, let's go ahead. Okay, So let's start with artificial intelligence and data. So first, if you could, you know, keeping in mind that we have listeners that maybe are just hearing about these technologies for the first time, if you could situate what do you mean by our official intelligence and data and that I would love to pull There's a couple ofations that I thought were pretty interesting that I'd love to share. Yeah. Good, well, you know, and it applies to many people, and it was actually one of the reasons why I wanted to wrote the book in the way I did. I'm on boards like you are, and when you're in the boardroom either you know, only with non executive directors or with the management team or teams below that often people are very reluctant to acknowledge that they actually don't exactly know what these technologies are about, right, and they're all aware they're supposed to know. And I wanted to take the curtain down, you know, and explain in a clear way what actually are these technologies and what does it mean to business and what can we do with them? And how can we use them for good?

6:47 Of course, So to your question artificial intelligence and data, what it actually does is create super braids for all of us. You could say, additional braids. It's like to explain. It's very simple at least because if we ask an AI specialist to explain it, we can fill an hour and then are that most listeners still don't don't know exactly what it can do. And it means that we can analyze huge amounts of data in very short time, analyze them, will algorithm what do they mean, and then put them to use. And that can be of course all kinds of us. And you just mentioned I distinguished nine technology groups in the book. That's important to explain first. So in contrast with former industrial revolutions that had like one, two, three inventions, big things we'll know what they are, and that changed the world, had big impact. I mean, we still suffer the consequences of the backside of these innovations, but also it was overseeable. Now with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it's very different. Before we had one or two tools, so maybe the hammer and the saw to give a comparison.

8:03 Now we have a complete toolkit and in that toolkit are all kinds of tools, and part of those tools are digital like AI and data we're talking about now, and part of those tools are physical. And those tools are not simply tools, but actually groups of tools because there's all kinds of varieties within them, so it's a wide range of opportunities and solutions we can use. Some of these technologies like AI and data are actually what I would call foundational technology. So if you think about building blocks, you need connectivity, you need AI and data and Internet of things as a foundation to be able to build other things on it. So it's a foundational technology. And with AI, for instance, we can see around the world what happens where, can analyze all data, so to you know, to solve illnesses much quicker because we can see the pattern, we can analyze it. We can use it for traffic, latistics, all kinds of areas we can apply it to.

9:13 That's what AI and data are about. In a very simple warding beautiful Marga, thank you, and then to give an example, just one one of the examples. I grew up Marga. My parents were farmers before they got in the restaurant business. So the one, of course, the sustainable development goals is to solve world hunger. And so if you could just speak a little bit about how AI and data are being used to make agriculture and farming more efficient to feed more people. Yeah, good points, Alis, So AI and data is very important for the whole agriculture and hunger area. For instance, to give you a concrete example. And also, which is the case in the book, is a zero farm beats and what is that?

9:58 That's actually a platform, a digital platform in combination with some sensors and drones that can be applied to farbs. It's not that expensive, so it's not that only big companies can do that, because that wouldn't solve the problem, now would it. And the combination of those technologies means that you do things much more precise than you would do before. So and you prevent half a slots. So, for instance, illnesses are tracked and traced very early on. You know exactly how much water to put in, and we don't put in more than necessary at the best moment. So on average, with these technologies you use at least forty percent less water. You use lead lighting in addition until normal lighting, so they're going to grow much quicker and much more.

10:50 You use the most optimum feeding conditions in crowned conditions, and with those technologies you can exactly measure it and you do presition farming, meaning that we know exactly how much in how much space there needs to be so that it's super efficient. Now everything taken together, that means that with a lesser footprint, so with less pollution, less resources, less water for instance, you get a much higher outcome. You mentioned the word efficiency for a reason, so that's one thing that now we can do. It also means if you talk about farming, you know a big part of the world is very small farms, especially in developing countries in remote areas, and those countries are often hit the hardest with things like climate change, for instance, because you know we have more and more storms for instance, around the world. Now, what we can also do by now combination of technologies with an app do early on warnings to those farmers so that they can literally protect their harvest in different ways so that we can work them is some plague could potentially be on the way, and we have some very very early signs on that. So all kinds of technologies and sometimes very simple things prevent on those farms for the harvest to get lost. When the harvest would get lost, it would mean more poverty, it mean more hunger. So preventing this, securing that what the

12:24 farmers actually grow is going to be harvest is a great value. Just different alleys how these technologies work in agriculture. Oh, it's so amazing, it's just so exciting. Okay, Now this next technology that I want to cover, well, I want to get to as many as we can. Three D printing. I have to say, I've read what you've written about it, and I've read other people's but I still don't fully understand how it actually works. So if you could say a little bit more about three D printing, and then I want to talk about one of the applications that you have in the book that I found so compelling. Oh I'm curious as to which one that is three D printing is actually literally what it says. It's printing materials. You have this kind of an arm. It goes back and forth and it builds up an object line by line, going back and forth.

13:13 So if you would rationally think about it, you would think that's crazy. That's going to take forever, you know, going line by line, but actually it goes super fast and it can build up even houses or bridges. But it can also be as small as a thing between your two fingers. So the range of what it can do is huge, and it can be applied in many different ways. Let's take an example like health care. For instance. You can imagine in the beginning we have three D printing machines that were huge or super expensive. And one thing that I describe in the book, the more the technology is scaled up and develop the lower the cost price, of course, and the more competition. That's also an economic fact, but that also means it becomes available to consumers, and it becomes available with people not so much money, and that means that we can also decentralize production and construction with three D printing, which is a very very important thing because it means that you can build up economies and different places in the world and you don't have to ship stuff around the world, so you can, for instance, let's take an example in New York, and then we'll get to your example that you find so thrilling. Fram Lab is a company that now three D prints shelters for homeless people. Wow, the cost price I think

14:46 from the top of my head, is around fifty to sixty percent lower than if you would build it in a regular way. But that's not even the most important thing is it uses much less space, and space is the problem in cities. Because it's vertical, its small, and it prints the whole little house with beds, closet, everything in it for a much lower price, and it can be taken away and replaced. So we're more and more flexible in doing things we want. In healthcare, we can now in a decentralized way three D print you know, parts of bodies to educate medical people in remote areas, but also you know, to apply them literally in people's bodies more and more up to even printing. But this is very experimental.

15:35 Still tissue mm hmm. I saw that. I was intriguing. Yeah, that's intriguing and and for me it's also intrigued in another way because imagine if we can solve bigger problems. You know, we all know about all the crimes going on in trading in tissue and organs. If we're able to produce much more, that's huge problems. We can that you not have to rely on donors as you're say in the book, because she said. Yeah. The thing that I got really excited about, Margaret, I just couldn't possibly even imagine this is you talk in your book about how coral reefs are being produced via three D printing and then able to fortify and sustain that. That was just so exciting to me, so compelling. But I had no idea this was being done. Yeah, it was to me as well. And when I had written the book, you know, you get to a point where you have done all the content and the research, and you think, what do I want to bring in psychologically to people, you know, as a layer above And then I thought, I really want people to dare to imagine again mm hmm. I love that because you know, logic will take us from A to B, but the imagination takes us anywhere. So it's important to really touch people's power to imagine. And when I was thinking about that, then use the example of the coral reefs that you just mentioned, Elise, because it's amazing. We can undo literally the harm that we've done.

17:11 That's not an excuse to go on doing harm, of course, but we can restore what we've broken down literally in the case of crawleries. And because we can do it so well, nature doesn't recognize it to be fake. So the wildlife round it can you know, the whole ecosystem can be restored, and those coals are threatened to be distinct. You know, in only a few decades, ninety percent will be gone if we don't really dramatically change her action. And it's not just the corall is, it's all the wildlife. You know, it has far going consequences. Oh, let's grab our first break and let our listeners and viewers just really contemplate that the notion of what you just shared there, it's immense. And your host, doctor Lis Cortez, We're going on the air with Margot Hoak. She's the three times CEO, currently a board Memberdshare, and the founder of Business for Good.

18:03 We've been talking about a few of the technologies from her book to Tech for Good. After the break, we're going to continue on to some more stay wiks will be right back. Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose.

19:00 Is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to a Lease alisee at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose. Thanks for stating with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor release Cortes, as I too, am dedicated to helping to create a world where people can realize their potential at work, are led by inspirational leaders that help them find and contribute their greatness, and we do business that betters the world. I keep writing my own books. So my latest book came out in twenty twenty three. It's called The Great Revitalization, How activating meaning and purpose can radically enliven your business. And I wrote it for leaders to help them understand the changed playing field of the workforce today. And then I offer twenty two best projects to help them create a culture to actually address that.

19:53 My guest today is Marga Howick. She is the author of Tech for Good Imagine Solving the World's Greatest challenges. So the next one I want to talk about here is robotics. And I have to say again the example that I saw in your book about how that's being used just blew me away. But let's talk about robotics first. Yeah, let's do so. Robotics comes in very different shapes and forms. It's not just one robot. In the book, I include full page with all kinds of different types of robots. Some are very big, some are very small, therefore very different purposes. Robotics always work together with one of the other digital technologies to create the algorithms, to have a platform and so on. We can have conscious decisions from now on what is wise to have humankind do and what is wise to use robots for. And I find it important to say that because I often get the questions, oh, robots, you know, we'll take our jobs and we'll be out of the picture because there's robots now. But you can also look at it from a different angle, you know. Then I say, we can have robots co into burning houses. It can be the first line for firefighters go into the fire. They can't burn they you know, we don't have to fear for their lives, so let's do that. Robots can go

21:25 into disaster sides. Maybe a bit of a depressing example, but still a very important one. At the battlefields, if somebody gets injured the first thirty seconds, it is the most important to rescue somebody. We can have robots do that. We can have robots clean hospitals, and they have been used for that reason. For instance, during the pandemic, you know, they were of great use. China was ahead of everyone in applying robotics for that reason to clean the hospitals, to go into whatever kind of contaminated area, and we want to protect people from that. So that's a very different way to look at robots. Also, we have high societal needs. You know, we have a lot of people that are old now and we don't have enough people to care for them other than the basic needs. And by now robots have evolved to such an extent that they can recognize emotions and they can play into that emotions and they can learn, they can actually get to know somebody they work for. For that reason. In some elderly homes, for instance, kind robotics of a specific type are used to play with people, to help to support or to lift people from beds, which is just very literally heavy lifting work that we have to protect people for. So robots and people will coincide and we have to use the best of both worlds. I

22:57 think I was really quite astounded to learn how much they had developed the emotional intelligence piece. That was really really surprising to me. And then the other example that really was compelling to me is how some companies have developed robotics to help children on the autism spectrum to develop and learn and grow. It's really compelling. Yeah, yeah, and they outperform compared to us humans because they can read their actions. They can you know, do it so precise and help kids so much. And there has been research and at least your psychologists, I believe, so it also has been researched that for those children, often freeing them up to work with such a role. But because they don't have to feel any shame, you know, yes, we're playful in a way, so yeah, you can do super good work. And combined with virtual reality for instance, so robotics in that sense for autistic children, for instance, combined with virtual reality to have them experience more, to have to try things out. A little bit of gamification comes into play there, and yeah, we can achieve so much more. I have to. Like I said, I really was so excited when I read your boy, was that all the applications, the possibilities are just stunning. Yeah, and that the next one I really didn't have any purview into before I read your book,

24:30 Marga, And that's advanced materials. So if you could speak a little bit to what are advanced materials and then there was one other example from that that I definitely wanted to talk about in terms of application of that technology. Well, then, Chrissa, if you really read the book, Alise, yes, ma'am, that's part of what I do. I know, I'm weird like that when it comes to podcasts. I appreciate that. So advanced materials is all kinds of materials, physical stuff that is, via biochemistry or any other technology nanotechnology, we can make materials that didn't exist before. Often, however, they're based on nature because nature gives us so many examples, and if we just try to copy and learn from nature, actually we find out the most innovations because for instance, butterflies or chameleons or all kinds of animals find out advanced materials in a way. So and those materials can be for instance, super strong but super light at the same time. Read apply them in mobility in airplanes or ships, make them lighter, reduce the footprint, you know, very simple. Or they can do stuff. They can either algae is can create energy to give you an example, or and I saw

26:02 in the notes that you're going to refer to that example. They can have a sustainable function. And I think the example you were referring to was the smoggeting facade. Is that correct? Yeah, in Mexico City. I was blown away by what you you depicted there of how advanced matereers are being used to combat that problem. Yeah. So, of course not the solution, because we shouldn't go on polluting, right, but since there's a polluted city, and that's an example, it's it started in Mexico City. It's what we call a smoke eating facade. So it's you said you put in front of the of the facing of the building, which actually in this case, for those that are going to read the book or look it up is very beautifully designed. You know, sustainable and design can go hand in hand, it can be super beautiful. And then it's a German technology called presolve it which covers that facing and that has a biochemical reaction to the smoke in the air and it literally cleans it up. It disappears. It has a chemical biochemical reaction up to eight thousand cars a day. And what makes it so stunning is that this hospital is in the middle of Mexico City. Total especiality, that is, it's called and you know where better to clean the air than around the hospital from all the cars there. And now it's evolving more architects are picking this up. Architects are of course very important people in this

27:33 regard, and we'll see it around the world. But imagine we have those technologies. So why you could question, would we build a wall next to a road just to keep out the noise. If we can have many functions at the same time, you know, either to use it for vertical farming, or to use it to create energy, or to use it in this case to take the smoke out, It's just stunning all the applications here. Okay, So was that was advanced materials we were talking about there. Now the next technology that you treat in your book is extended realities, which I knew a little something of, but you took it to a whole other realm.

28:15 So let's talk about extended realities please. Yeah. Extended realities means literally that we extend our reality beyond what we can see. And how do we do that by virtual reality or augmented reality. And we all by now know these VR glasses, and most people have the association with this technology as it being fun and it being used in games. Right, It's fine because the gaming world actually is a very breeding place of innovation. A lot of broader innovations come from the gaming world, which is fine. But then imagine what we can do with it. We can use it, as I just said, to train people because we can literally put them in situations that are not debt. But also imagine how we can improve education and not only education, but also understanding around the world of people in different situations, literally building bridges, because imagine if you are in school and you're not only talking about people in Africa or the US or Europe or any other part of the world, but you can literally be there yourself to grow a better understanding also with the whole diversity and inclusion agenda, which is so important right now. Imagine that this is very helpful in companies like for instance, Semens and quite some others

29:47 now have set up training programs using virtual reality to create better mutual understanding and to really incorporate the feeling and the culture of d n I diversity, equality and inclusion using this technology. I was really excited about that, Margaret, because I am you know, obviously as a social scientist as well and certainly working to be able to help advocate for de I N of course be now belonging. I was really blown away that that these extended realities are being used for this, you know, the gender equality applications. I just really was amazed by that. I had no idea that we could use that technology that way like you, Like you said earlier, I was still stuck in the make it fun camp, you know. Yeah, yeah, which is also important and shouldn't be forgotten. But experience, you know, having people experience each other's situations, each other's lives, each other's culture, of course, does a lot more. It goes beyond it's it's tremendous. All right, let's grab our last break here before we go on and treat the rest of your technologies. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. We've been on the air with Margo Howick. She's a three time CEO and currently the board member at chair and the founder of Business for Good. We've been talking about a few more of the technologies in her amazing book. We'll cover the rest after the break. See you there. Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing

31:30 in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to a lease ALISEE at eleascortes dot com. Now back to working on purpose. Thanks for staying with us and welcome back to Working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes. Before we get back to the program, I want to share something with you. I've signed up for this and planned to attend the Humanitarian Exchange.

32:29 It's February twenty twenty twenty four, perfect for this particular conversation. What is it? It is a world gathering of people who care about being able to address humanitarian issues around the world. So purpose driven organizations and individuals across society are all invited to attend. It's free. You can intend in person or online. The way to do it is go to Humanitarianexchange dot org. There's no e so Humanitarianexchange dot org. You can then use the code hx dash Priority to register to get some special access to this comments because you heard it here on the show. I will see you there if you are just joying me today. My guest is Margat Howick. She's the author of Tech for Good Imagine Solving the World's Greatest Challenges. Okay, so the next thing, so to get us as much as we can here for the next one.

33:20 Here, Margaret, we have autonomous vehicles and drones and I have to say, you know, I've been long and intrigued by the notion of autonomous vehicles. I love driving my car, I quite enjoy my car, but it would be really nice if somebody else did that for me. Yeah, that's one of the or someboding else did that for me, Yeah, totally. And of course if we talk about autonomous vehicles and drones, the cars the first thing that comes to our mind. But actually the concept is much wider. Yes, even maybe some other shapes and forms are more important, like the topic of drones. Yes, and so let's spend a little bit of time on drones, because with drones, what is so important is little flying things. You know, you can have them from very small to relatively large. They can do very different functions. But something that stood out for me is that the fact if you use drones for areas where you have no infrastructure, yes, you don't need to build the infrastructure anymore. So you don't have any delays for the things that you want to transport. And when is it important to not have a delay. That is in terms of agriculture.

34:37 You know, if you want to help farmers to be able to grow something and to be hunger, you can use drones by bringing seats and other supplies. Then online you can provide instructions, you know, or some learning programs or some weather and storm warnings, and you have it there very quick on the exact spot where it needs to be. You have no chances of it ending up somewhere else. And we all know what I mean by that. But it's on the right spot with the right people. And that's for agricultural products, but of course also for medical devices, for quick met help, for medicines, all those things. We can get quickly to the place where it needs to be. And autonomous vehicles is something that is going to happen whether we like it or not. Of course, I know everybody is focusing on the risks, but a lot of analysis has been done by now that we have more accidents by people driving themselves than autonomous vehicles. And then we still will have accidents, but we all have to wise up and think about the quantitivity of those things rather than we fear the machine more than ourselves, you know, we have to go beyond that. And it's also actually you could say crazy thought if you drive around in cities, and we all know how complex that is, and everybody starts thinking for themselves, whereas we

36:09 have collective knowledge of what areas not to go to, how fast or slow to drive because then we have a three green zone with the traffic lights, or where to go because there's a parking place and where to stay away. Somebody else knows better than us alone in that car. So we have to, you know, think differently about those things and use technology to improve things. But for me, the drone thing is what stands out the most because it means we can do things we were not able to do before. I describe one case in the book with dhl for instance. Please it makes sense.

36:53 You know, if you're are a transport company like dhl IS and some others and so on, you're good in transportations, you should immediately adopt these new technologies and use them for good because it has social impact. And I can assure you because your company's results will improve because of it. And this is one interesting case in the book where they actually did a huge pilot in Tanzania six months where they aimed for four hundred thousand residents that had no connection whatsoever to bring medical supplies to them. I just explained that that makes sense.

37:42 But on top of that, they also took something back. They took back samples that could be analyzed elsewhere, and it would have not happened in the place where their samples were taken. But this way, very quickly, they could be brought to hospitals and experts that know what to do with it, analyze it, and then the next round bring the light medical supplies and expertise back. So that's a whole new type of supply chain that becomes possible with the help of technology. It's so amazing markets it's just like bottomless. The other thing that I appreciate about your work, too, Market that I think is important to point out is you do address throughout your book how in various instances that technology gets a bad rap and people are afraid of that, et cetera, and you go and address all that. And I think that's really really important because people are continued to fear that. Right, I'm sorry, we shouldn't ignore that, Yes, exactly, we should understand people's feelings, we should relate to it. I mean, there's a whole other area around this, and I write that in the last chapter. You know, what do we need to do to scale all of this up? And one part is, of course the whole area of rules, legislation, laws.

38:54 But then equally, I've all at the Financial Times even the other day, where I was asked what we need to do, and I said, you know, we also have to, on top of mitigating the risks, shift from legislation that focuses on doing no harm to legislation that focuses on doing good. Otherwise we delay all these solutions that we actually desperately need around the world. Oh, that is so powerful, Markov. That is that perspective that lens is incredibly powerful. Okay, let's move on. There's two more. There's I think two more technologies that I want to cover. Yeah, so next is blockchain. I knew I learned a little something about blockchain from a previous guest, but again, as we would expect, you took it to a whole other level and helped us understand various applications that just really extend what I ever knew about it. So let's talk about blockchain first. What is it? If I, and probably I shouldn't say it like that, but to make everybody understand, it's actually tracking and tracing technology. It's a system that makes the connections visible and to the purpose of the book, it's very important that we can check the sourcing of things which we couldn't before. So, for instance, in biological cotton, everybody can claim, you know, this is biological cotton. That's nice, how we're going to check that.

40:21 But blockchain we can, in a simple way, precisely check that. And because we check that, we can hold now companies accountable. That's another side of these technologies. Because we have the technologies, we can expect and we can raise the bar for people to really use them because you know it's there. Yeah, and you know, that was one thing that I found. Really there were so many things in your book. I mean, it's just really just blew my mind wide open. And so let me just quickly situate that for listeners and viewers, I highly recommend you pick up this book because just getting even some glimpses of some of the applications that Margaret talks about will ignite your imagination of how you might be able to produce something different or new for your own company. There's just there's so much in there that really sparks the imagination, and just the applications are mind blowing. No truly is and that's one of the reasons I wrote the book to create imagination for people, but also to make it very concrete, because I don't know how that's for you. But I never like it if I see a keynote or read a book and I think, okay, that's all right, but it's theory, now what right? Right? So in the book there's seventy five real life business cases where I describe what does the company do, what is there purpose, how does technology and which technologies help and which STGs are impacted positively and

41:52 how can this be skilled up? And that makes it very concrete. And I don't expect people to read from cover to cover. Always like to give a structure to a book that you can browse through or look up your specific sector or your specific question or specific interest and then read that part and maybe read another part later mm hmm. And I think it's just I plan to use your book as a resource mark if I've gone through it, and now I can go back and say, I want to hear I want to learn more about this particular technology or what's happening, or how they're solving or trying to address this particular goal. So that's how I plan to continue using it. Yeah, A couple of the things about blockchain that I thought were really really interesting in terms of application. You talk about you know, of course one of the it girls is to eradicate poverty, and you talk about how we can use blockchain to identify a payment services for the most vulnerable population segments.

42:49 How fascinating is that. I mean really just thinking about how to extend this and so could you say a little bit how would that work? Yeah, I can can help IDENTI identify payment services for people because it you know, the system with blockchain is also that it takes out intermediary part of parties. Yes, it makes a lot of things much more accessible for people because you know, with the old fashioned if you will supply chain, there's a lot of parties in a chain that don't always necessarily add a lot of value, but they do raise the cost price, and that changes with blockchain.

43:29 It's being taken out. It facilitates accessible health data, It provides authenticity and transparency or medical products, helps in that sense to reduce risks and minimize costs. So it makes a lot of things much more accessible. It's really astounding to learn all the applications of that. Than you also mentioned some stuff around clean energy applications, which we won't go into now, but viewers, if we care about energy, there's a whole lot in there for that. Okay, so we're coming close to the end of the show. The last technology that I want to spend a little bit of time on is space tech. You could talk a little bit about that, Yeah, of course, I mean, the world doesn't end at the world nowadays, and we would say it growing space economy even I have so many stillites and activities in space.

44:30 That has an upside, and we'll focus on the upside. It also has a downside because not only do we pollute our planet, but by now we also pollute space. We have twenty five thousand floating particles, loss satellite and stuff in space. It's the new pollution area. I just wanted to make out of that because it's important that we realize that and we don't make the same mistakes in space. Starts to look like that that we make on our planet. At the same time, we can protect our planet from space. Of course, you have a lot of space accloration and looking for other planets on that whole part. But there's also a part that we can actually do much better work from space to protect our planet because we can use satellites to monitor exactly how deforestation is looking like in which part of the world, how the weather is changing around the world, how the ozone layer is evolving around the world, et cetera, et cetera. And with all that knowledge, we can you know, really picture and monitor everything going on in space.

45:49 We also have companies that do the cleaning up of space, which I just mentioned, which is very important. Astro Scale is a company that seeks all those particles and everything floating around in space, trying to get it back and recycle them in the end, so particular economy in space. Oh, Margat, that's amazing, really mind boggling. So we're here the end already. It goes by so fast. You now know that this show's listening to by people around the world, Marga, who really urged it in either helping to create or being part of organizations that really help them realize their potential. They're led by those inspiration leaders that lead them to their greatness, and we do business a better in the world. What would you like to leave them with?

46:36 I would like to leave them with the thought that everybody matters. Let's start with that. Everybody matters in companies or elsewhere. In whatever role you have, you can be influential. Let's start with that. Then. Second, just know that in the future, with the change of your generations, doing business for good, so not only you know, having a less bad foot brand, but having a positive impact on the world is going to be more and more important for various reasons because the nature of the generations changes and next generations are much more purpose driven. So this will be your stakeholders wherever, your investors, your employees, your clients, everywhere. Second, because the challenges are so high that you will get to a tacking shifting point where it will be much more profitable to do good than to do bad. So that will shift, the price of pollution will go higher, so it will be more and more important. So no, you want to be in that sense, on the right side of history, and you want to help your company to do good. If you want to do that, technology could potentially be your biggest ally because as the book describes and as it wants to touch upon your imagination, it goes beyond our limits of thinking or no to what extent we can use technology to do good in new ways or improve the current

48:07 ways, and to embrace that and to know more about that means that for everybody listening will help your company to be more innovative, to strengthen a competitive position, to do more good, and to be more successful in the future. What a fantastic way to leave our listeners and viewers with Margat. It is a delight to know you and to be inspired by you, learn from you, and thank you so much for being on working on purpose. I'm so happy to know you. Likewise, thank you so much for inviting me at Liza. It was a great conversation, very very very welcome. Listeners and viewers. You're not going to want to let this woman go, so let me tell you how to find her. So the easiest way is to go to her personal website. It's marga Hooick dot com. Let me spell that for you. It's m A r g A h o ees ek dot com margat Howick. So that way you can look at the rest of her books, what she's up to in her businesses, etc. It's amazing for what she's up to last week giving miss the live show. You can always catch it be recorded podcast we were on the air with Monica Parker talking about her incredibly meedy and enlivening book, The Power of Wonder, The extraordinary emotion that will change the way you live, learn, and lead. We learn that wonder is both a journey and a destination, a verb and a noun, a process and an outcome, and that there are five interlinking elements that comprise the Wonder's cycle. We also dove into ascertaining the extent to which we might be wonder prone ourselves. Next week, we'll be on the air with Deb Smolensky talking about her new book Brain on mental fitness strategies for sharpening focus,

49:42 boosting energy, and winning the work day. See you there. Remember that work is one of the best adventures and means of realizing our potential and making the impact we crave. So let's work on Purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host doctor these quartes each week on W four CY. Together, we'll create a world where business operates conscientiously, leadership inspires and passion performance, and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning and purpose They crave, see you there. Let's work on purpose.