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Impact Revolution
“Start young, think big, and stick with it” (Sir Ronald Cohen).
On Friday, 8th April we had one of the most amazing guest on our Swiss Impact TV, Sir Ronald Cohen, Chairman of the Global Steering Group for the Impact Investment. He is a pioneering philanthropist, venture capitalist, private equity investor and social innovator whose story and legacy will remain in your heart, and hopefully in your mind as well.
Sir Ronald Cohen was born in Egypt. At at the age of 12, with his family he had to leave his country and arrived in UK as a refugee. There, a school principal’s decision changed his life. Despite not knowing English, the principal was touched by his father’s words and allowed him to join. Sir Cohen came first in his class and later on graduate from Oxford and Harvard. After many years of a successful carrier as an investment professional he decided to do something more meaningful, something that would bring well being to everyone. This is how, he ended up making Impact Investment a globally known term.
When asked about the most important lesson he has learnt in life, he answered: “You can’t learn to swim by doing exercises on the beach. And perseverance is a very important part of success once you’ve started”.
The Global Steering Group, he mentioned, is an organization that started after the G8 Task Force decision on social impact investment (the first impact venture fund). They realized how the world was starting to shift, from economies that optimized risk and return, to economies that optimize risk, return and impact. After they presented such discovery in their report (titled The Invisible Heart of Markets) the British Government asked them to push that thinking globally. Today, GSG is operational in more than 35 countries. The idea behind is to change the economic systems so that they bring solutions to social and environmental challenges.
Sir Ronald then talked about his book, Impact: Reshaping capitalism, which is about major changes occurring in society. These changes are a response to the great environmental and social challenges we face. Governments have been unable to solve this wicked problems due to lack of resources. With this approach the economic system, which traditionally created all the above mentioned problems, can be turned into the solution through conscious investing. The book, he mentioned, is suitable for people with no prior knowledge on the topic, and is also useful for people with advanced knowledge on the matter, and it’s available in many languages!
Finally, Sir Ronald Cohen called us to take action: “Think about what we have talked today, read the book and pass it on to others, and if you agree with it, talk to your children about it. Begin to adjust your spending, management of your business and your investment portfolio to deliver impact as well as profit”.
You can watch the entire interview at various channels, including Youtube, Spotiy and Smart TV.
With warm regards,
Ben
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