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" The basic skills of leaders are always the same: be driven by a deeper purpose, be a human being, have a passion for what you do, and it's also about hard work and ethics. "

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" If we all act together - business, governments, NGOs and citizens and, especially, the young - just imagine the good we could create. "

Paul Polman

Young

Business

Together

" Too often, we are being programmed by the environment around us to behave differently. But I think a true leader is an authentic person who feels good about who he is. "

" Africa is a vibrant, varied continent with a growing consumer base. "

" We need more food, more forests, better livelihoods for smallholder farmers, and lower emissions. If we want any of them, we must have all of them. "

Paul Polman

Better

Farmers

" Why would you invest in a company which is out of synch with the needs of society, that does not take its social compliance in its supply chain seriously, that does not think about the costs of externalities or of its negative impacts on society? "

" System-wide changes rely on a critical mass of interested parties, all willing to enter into deep partnerships and collaborations, founded on new levels of trust and a commitment to action, not debate. "

" We cannot eliminate poverty without enabling developing countries to engage more people in economic activity that use natural resources, and we cannot resolve runaway climate change without creating wealth in a more equitable and less carbon intensive way. "

" Providing financial incentives for both local communities and national governments to conserve and restore forests also makes sense. It will put an economic value on these precious natural resources and drive the right behaviours from both government and business. "

" The commitment to put an end to illegal deforestation and develop sustainable alternatives for commodities like palm oil and soy, for example, is an inspiring illustration of what can be achieved when governments and industry partners come together determined to bring about transformational market-wide changes. "

" At the end of the day, people will follow you or people will be energised by you if they buy into your vision or purpose. So the most important thing is to be true to yourself. That's why I would say to be a great leader - you, first and foremost, have to be a great human being. And sharing that purpose and sharing the values. "

" Purpose has always been part of Unilever's DNA. Our founder, William Lever, built a business around the sale of Lifebuoy soap that was not only profitable and sustainable but also helped transform the health of the poor in Victorian Britain. "

" Often people ask me what my job is, and I say, honestly, it is to make others successful, and the more you do that, the more you will see that you create prosperity. "

" It cannot be right in a world of increasing human progress - whether in medicine, space exploration or renewable energy - that so many people are denied the most basic human rights. "

" Permissible growth in the future has to be based on sustainable and equitable models. "

" Leadership is not a contest of likeability. Leadership often boils down to making the tougher choices. You are not in a popularity contest. "

" I do not work for the shareholder, to be honest. I work for the customer. "

" Safe working conditions, fair wages, protection from forced labor, and freedom from harassment and discrimination - these must become standard global operating conditions. "

" To achieve policy stability and certainty, we need to establish a meaningful price on carbon and cut the billions of dollars spent each year on fossil-fuel subsidies, along with well-structured financial tools and rules. "

" Many businesses understand the advantages of gender parity. "

" Working together on solving something requires a high level of humility and a high level of self-awareness. "

" I see business as an ecosystem. "

" Simply put, the low-carbon economy is better for growth. "

" Runaway climate change would condemn millions to a life of poverty and cause us to fail to meet the Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. This is not an acceptable outcome. "

" There is still too much pressure on short-termism in terms of the drivers of success. "

" My career has been a level of serendipity all along. I've never planned anything out more than a few years. All the places we lived - the 12, 13 countries - and the companies I worked for were a combination of circumstances. "

" At Unilever, we operate in 190 countries with two billion people using our products daily. We take climate seriously because we know that it impacts those two billion people - and that means it impacts us, too. "

" Left unchecked, climate change risks not only making the poorest poorer, but pulling the emerging middle classes back into poverty, too. "

" When the climate hurts, people and businesses also feel the pain. "

" Sustainability makes good business sense, and we're all on the same team at the end of the day. That's the truth about the human condition. "

" For Unilever, investing in women is an imperative. The business and social cases for doing so are inextricably linked. "