HEC Launches Impact Company Lab’s Experiential Approach through 2050NOW

On April 26, over 300 people joined together for HEC’s first immersive learning experience designed to explore how businesses’ ability can drive a just transition in a rapidly changing world.  Organized by the HEC Impact Company Lab and powered by Schneider Electric, 2050 NOW first plunged into one of eight megacities chosen, Kinshasa. The organizers thus embarked students, researchers and business leaders into a world which could materialize 26 years from now. In the first of a two-part series, we look at the reasons driving this unique experiential event designed to drive paradigm shifts to answer major societal challenges. 

On a giant screen, an image: in the forefront, a woman looking into the distance, her face radiant and dreamy under her impressive Afro. Behind her, people milling busily, perspiration dripping from some faces, others masked in a pandemic-restricted zone. An old-fashioned tramway rumbles by, shadowed by a futuristic cable car swinging above it… 

This is the poster advertising 2050 NOW, the immersive live experiment which officially launched HEC’s Impact Company Lab in April. The photo looks into the future from our present time zone. It combines solid human values with technology, placing them in some of the world’s most populated cities. Through this prism, the experiment hopes to make the audience think about the importance of going beyond the me, the here and the now as they think about building sustainable businesses and game changing ‘impact initiatives.  It incites them to think about the places on Earth where both the challenges and the potential opportunities are concentrated: megacities which will host the world’s largest concentration of people by 2050 - mostly located in the global south. It accompanies them as they experience the longitudinal ripple effects of different business decisions. Together.   

Finding a Just Transition 

On a windy afternoon in Jouy-en-Josas, the French town outside Paris hosting HEC, all these elements were united to try and answer one basic question: how can companies best invest to narrow the gap between intentions and results and help create a just transition for all? It was the latest in a series of yearlong reflections that the Impact Company Lab has explored, scenarios designed to facilitate a just transition in a rapidly changing world. 

Over one trillion dollars a year are invested worldwide by businesses in this sector - yet the gap between investments and results is growing, at a time when it has never been more urgent to narrow breaches between impact intentions and results. “Are we ready for a world just 25 summers away?” asked Maureen Sigliano, Executive Director of the Impact Company Lab, addressing the 350 people from 38 nations gathered in a circle in the town’s largest theater hall.

The Salle du Vieux Marché is just a stone’s throw from the HEC campus, yet, on this grey spring afternoon, it felt light years away. This was the setting for a first for HEC Paris, a cross-generational, cross-cultural and cross-functional learning experience that felt like an immersive time machine. “We’re not talking about a distant future, 2050 is close enough to be able to imagine it while far away enough to be able to shape it.” Sigliano then embarked the audience on a trip into the future exploring megatrends, key megacities and the focusing on the possible future of Kinshasa which will be one of the most populated cities on earth by 2050.

Megacities and Megatrends

“Megacities like the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo are where defining megatrends shape humanity’s future: demographic surges, climate change, and asymmetric power dynamics,” added Marieke Huysentruyt. She’s the Academic Director of the Impact Company Lab with a long track record in research the social dimensions of firms. For months, Huysentruyt and Sigliano have been designing a program to guide business decisioning and action towards a transition that is both effective and just. By studying  eight of the world’s megacities (Mumbai, Dhaka, Kinshasa, Lagos, Cairo, Manila, São Paolo, and Shanghai), they aim to include the voices and realities of the people who have most at stake. The two researchers are convinced that understanding and including the voices of megacities like these will be critical for the co-creation of solutions for a more just and sustainable future. The Impact Company Lab is encouraging its partners and stakeholders to considering deeper, multi dimensional and multi disciplinary perspectives as they make decisions linked to sustainability. 

Maureen Sigliano and Marieke Huysentruyt brought back the sounds, images and social realities from the 10-day learning expedition in the Congolese capital and plunged the France-based participants into its streets. As the audience travelled back and forth in time the participants began to understand the impact of business decisions on our common future. “With such experiments, we are aiming to redefine Impact Leadership by building a global community of what we call Frontier Impact Companies,” explained Sigliano. “This learning experience aims to identify new perspectives and drive paradigm shifts to answer universal business impact related changes.” Huysentruyt hopes this initial first workshop involving HEC members, partners and outside observers will be part of a series of experiments leading to specific impact questions: “We want to create a body of evidence for present and future leaders to bridge the gap between impact intentions and results.” 

The focus on Kinshasa for this first session put the spotlight on the opportunities and challenges of megacities through interactive theater. The discussions were passionate and the “aha” moments were numerous as 4,500 years of collective experience were harnessed in the grand old Jouy hall. It was channeled by four professional performers, specially hired to harness the creativity and imagination of the audience.

Part 2: From Ile-de-France to Kinshasa, RDC: Solving the Issues of Tomorrow with Reflections of Today.