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I don't think our fiduciary duty is to put shareholders first. I say the opposite. What we firmly believe is that if we focus our company on improving the lives of the world's citizens and come up with genuine sustainable solutions, we are more in synch with consumers and society and ultimately this will result in good shareholder returns.

Paul Polman

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Paul Polman
Age: 68
Born: 1956
Born: July 11
Entrepreneur
Executive
Paulus Gerardus Josephus Maria Polman
Thinking
Society
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Improving
Come
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Consumers
Synch
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Sustainable

More quotes by Paul Polman

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This world is changing enormously. In any position in a company you need to work very hard on learning new skills every day, but you also need to unlearn some of the old skills from the past.
Paul Polman
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Unless we change direction, models show that the profit of the entire consumer goods sector could be wiped out by 2050.
Paul Polman
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It is unacceptable that more than 1 billion people are hungry every day while another billion are obese.
Paul Polman
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My biggest fear is that I become useless or less useful by not being up to date - be it with technology, changing consumers, changing global situations. You continuously have to have a little level of paranoia that forces you to set the bar higher every day.
Paul Polman
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Leadership is not just about giving energy ... it's unleashing other people's energy.
Paul Polman
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I don't have any frustrations. It sounds a little silly, but life is too short for me. I don't worry about all the things that happen, I just think about what to do with them. I work a lot with blind people in my spare time and I count my blessings every day.
Paul Polman
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Provocative and challenging The Social License makes a compelling case for why companies must look to increase their positive social impact as an integral part of their core business strategies.
Paul Polman
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If you work at an insurance company that sells premiums you wouldn't even sell to your mother, how happy would you feel to work there? It's going to eat you up. It might last a few years, but it doesn't attract the best people, and it certainly doesn't create the energy and engagement you need to be a long-term performing company.
Paul Polman
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The moment you discover in life that it's not about yourself, that it is about investing in others, I think you're entering a steadier state to be a great leader. Because above all, I think the main quality of a leader is to be a human being. There's no reason you are special because you happen to have this job or these responsibilities.
Paul Polman
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Many companies are disappointing the citizens of this world by manipulating labor rates, putting horse meat instead of beef out there, or thinking it's totally acceptable to make a T-shirt from a collapsing factory. Increasingly, people don't want to work for these companies, and consumers don't want to buy from them.
Paul Polman
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People at my level [Unilever CEO] shouldn't be motivated by salary. If you paid me double, I'm not going to work twice as much, because I'm already probably maximizing my time available. And would it change the way I do things? Not really. So, yes, I am fortunate, and I am ashamed about the amount of money I earn.
Paul Polman
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My biggest fear is that we [Unilever company] at one point in time will not be able to attract the best and brightest [workers]. I don't worry so much about the business, the strategy. If we can continue to attract the best, I know they will ultimately figure out how to run the company in a very tough environment.
Paul Polman