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The UN Global Compact journey of three young Alexforbes innovators
Penelope Gregoriou Mzovuyo Nyamela Ndumiso Sithole
In 2015 the United Nations Global Assembly set 17 interlinked goals as a global blueprint to realising a better and more sustainable future for all. The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), along with their targets, provide a framework to verify the effectiveness of remedies to solve the sustainability issues facing the global community, such as extreme poverty, hunger and gender equality. The ambition is to fulfil the objectives of these goals by 2030.
The dialogue around the role that corporate entities play in the pursuit of a better and more sustainable future for all has been growing steadily in recent times. This has spurred the development of programmes such as the UN Global Compact Young SDG Innovators Programme (YSIP). The programme gives participating companies of the UN Global Compact the opportunity to nominate high-performing young individuals within their organisations to take part in a nine-month accelerator programme. The ultimate goal is to activate future business leaders and change makers to develop and drive innovative solutions aligned with the SDGs, through new technologies, initiatives and business models. 2021 saw Alexforbes become a new participant in the YSIP programme with candidates Ndumiso Sithole (investment analyst), Penelope Gregoriou (technical investment specialist) and Mzovuyo Nyamela (client investment analyst) chosen as the company’s representatives.
Reflecting on the start of the programme, Mzovuyo Nyamela recalls, “We had four online innovation camps which we joined with other South African and on some occasions, international companies. Each camp was roughly an eight-hour session split in two days. The camps occurred bi-monthly from February to August.” The objective of each engagement session or camp was to equip the participants of the programme with the knowledge and tools required to tackle the sustainability issues facing their respective industries through breakthrough business model innovation.
“There were two key points that the programme facilitators emphasised as being critical in order for us to produce successful and applicable business models. The first of these was the concept of loving the problem, which basically meant that we had to conduct a deep dive, through research, into the issues which plight our respective industries and access how each solution we came up with impacted the parties involved. Secondly, the concept of exponential thinking was introduced to us, which spoke to gearing our mindsets towards ambitious idea generation based on solving for the challenges we had identified,” says Ndumiso Sithole.
Penelope Gregoriou further expands on this, pointing out that, “Throughout each engagement session we got a better idea of how businesses can do well by doing good, and that mutual and shared benefits do not need to detract from a business’s key strategy. In fact, sustainable processes, products and services can improve and enhance it.”
As a result of their in-depth understanding of the challenges that face the retirement industry and their proposed remedy to these identified challenges, the first cohort to represent Alexforbes in the Young SDG Innovators Programme was chosen as one of two South African companies that would present their solution at the inaugural Young SDG Innovators Summit, along with 35 other countries. The question of whether participating in the UN Global Compact Young SDG Innovators Programme had any impact on the chosen Alexforbes representatives was posed to each team member. Nyamela’s response was, “The impact of the programme is measurable given that it has added value to how I now engage with clients and the questions I pose to the underlying single managers in our client solutions. One of the engagements I have been involved in at a particular advisory client meeting was how asset managers look at sustainable investing and the extent to which they incorporate the UN SDGs. In my view the investment industry has a long way to go in incorporating sustainable investing in their management approach, especially since asset managers still subscribe to the CRISA codes and UN SDGs than intentionally investing in such a way. However, the SDG programme is designed to transform business models and strategies at company level which is something I am keen to see happen.”
Gregoriou adds, “We are constantly bombarded with information about how the state of the world needs to change. Things can no longer be done the way they previously have been because of dire environmental, social and economic consequences that unsustainable processes have yielded and that communities are struggling with as a result. The opportunity to be part of the UN Young SDG Innovators Programme gave me the chance to see that we can take advantage of opportunities in the challenges.”
Sithole concludes by saying, “South African society faces relatively unique problem sets that affect a vast majority of its population. This requires the application of unconventional thinking when seeking to generate solutions to these problems. Participating in the UN Young SDG Innovators Programme has made me more aware of how damaging lack of information or education can be to individuals, particularly those who are the underlying members of pension funds. The programme has sparked the ambition of tackling the information asymmetries that exist between pension fund trustees and the underlying members through education, using the Alexforbes Manager Watch Surveys as a platform to inform, for all.”
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