Each week, The Innovator's Radar newsletter enables you to stay on top of the latest business innovations. Enjoy this week's issue.
Jennifer L. Schenker
Innovator Founder and Editor-in-Chief |
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In a move designed to reassure thousands of companies over the transfer of personal information, the European Union approved a new deal allowing companies to freely transfer data between the EU and the United States, potentially ending three years of legal limbo.
The European Commission said that a recent executive order issued by U.S. president Joe Biden that imposed new obligations on the transfer of data between the regions provided adequate privacy protections to European citizens.
The U.S. sought to resurrect transatlantic data-sharing arrangements because thousands of organizations, including tech companies, banks, law firms and car makers, rely on moving data easily between the two regions. According to the White House, transatlantic data flows underpin $7.1 trillion in economic activities.
Read on to learn more about this story and the week's most important technology news impacting business. |
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| Dutch television journalist Teun van de Keuken was shocked when he discovered that there is illegal child labor and forced labor on cocoa farms in West Africa. Chocolate producers were not.
Eight of the largest chocolate companies signed a protocol in 2001 that condemned child labor and childhood slavery but consistently missed deadlines for putting an end to the practice.
As a result some 1.56 million children – ranging in age from 5 to 12 - are still engaged in child labor on cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which together, produce nearly 60% of the world’s cocoa.
Van de Keuken finds that unacceptable. He and two of his journalist colleagues created a company called Tony’s Chocolonely to make 100% slave free and child labor free the norm for chocolate sold by all companies. The aim is to drive structural change towards a more equally divided cocoa chain. The company, which sells its products in the U.S., UK and continental Europe, sourced more than 14,002 metric tons of cocoa last year.
“We want to lead by example,” says Paul Schoenmakers, the company’s head of impact. His role involves collaborating with the cocoa farmers who supply Tony’s – including all programs and activities involving partner cooperatives in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire— as well as working with governments and NGOs to accelerate change in the industry. One of the most important parts of his job is to actively support other companies that sell chocolate product to take responsibility for their value chains, through Tony's Open Chainplatform. Some ten companies – including Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, are now on the platform.
Tony’s progress is an example of how purpose can make ethical supply chains a reality, contribute to the U.N’s Sustainable Development Goals and help business be a force for good.. |
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Who: Brian Evergreen is the author of the upcoming book Autonomous Transformation: Creating A More Human Future In The Era Of Artificial Intelligence which will be published in August. He is best known for his work advising Fortune 500 executives on artificial intelligence strategy. Building on his experiences working at Accenture, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, Evergreen guest lectures at Purdue University and the Kellogg School of Management and is a Senior Fellow in the Economy, Strategy, and Finance Center of The Conference Board.
Topic: How leaders can shift their leadership methodologies and organizational culture to harness the economic and societal potential of AI and adjacent advanced technologies to achieve "Profitable Good."
Quote: "In this era of artificial intelligence, creating and executing an AI strategy according to the leadership systems we’ve inherited from the Industrial Revolution is a recipe for failure. Your business, technology, and people strategies are interdependent, and should be developed as such. If they were not, then it’s time to refresh those strategies cohesively and at the top level of the organization."
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Goodwall, a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, is a skills-based social network that helps Gen Z to nurture the right set of competencies to gain access to educational and work-related opportunities. The app enables 2 million plus young people aged 16-24 in more than 150 countries to develop skills with gamified challenges, showcase skills with a digital profile and connect to learning and earning opportunities from scholarships to jobs.
The advantage for Fortune 1000 companies is that it allows them to build early relationships with young talent and engage with them at scale, says Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder Omar Bawa. The Swiss scale-up’s partners include SAP, PwC, and UNICEF.
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Number of central banks across emerging and advanced economies expected to have digital currencies in circulation by the end of the decade, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) found in a survey published July 10. Central banks around the globe have been studying and working on digital versions of their currencies for retail use to avoid leaving digital payments to the private sector amid an accelerating decline of cash. Some are also looking at wholesale versions for transactions between financial institutions.
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CogX Festival, September 12-14, London, EnglandFall ‘23 VON: Telecom, AI, 6G, November 1-2, New York City, U.S.Puzzle X, November 7-9, Barcelona, Spain |
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