Rajiv Joshi on how inequality hurts business

Transcript

RAJIV JOSHI: If you start to look at the question of inequality from an economic perspective, you see that we live in a world where most of the world’s population doesn’t have the ability to participate in the economy. The opportunity to market your services to the 3.5 billion people who are not currently participating actively in the economy is the biggest economic opportunity of our generation.

[Inequality is logo. A graphic black equal sign with an orange slash through it. #InequalityIs. Rajiv Joshi, managing director, The B Team. A Scottish, Kenyan-Indian man wearing a blue suit.]

Inequality has a unifying challenge for humanity. Business cannot thrive on a planet where there is gross inequality, where there is gender inequality and women can’t participate in the economy. It cannot thrive on a planet where there is such environmental degradation that 60% of our ecosystems are declining, where our biodiversity is being lost at such a rapid rate. It cannot thrive on a planet where people don’t have access to healthcare and where employees are not coming to work healthy, and where their lifespans are so short that they’re not able to provide the value that companies need. At the end of the day, 99% of the world’s people have less wealth than 1% of the world’s people combined. I mean that is an injustice that needs to be resolved. Solving this problem, sharing value more fairly will enable millions of people to realize their full potential. If we can get that right, we can build a just, safe, fair and thriving economy that operates within the boundaries set by nature and provides a bright future for humanity for generations to come.

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