In 2006 we drew together a team of leaders from organisations such as ABB, Alcan, Amnesty International Business Group, BP, Dr Reddy's, Ford, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Infosys Technologies, KPMG, McKinsey and Standard Chartered. We challenged them in particular to look at the role of global businesses in society... Their opening statement was unexpected: "We all believe that for companies to succeed into the future they must play a greater role in contributing to solving the problems that society faces, including environmental degradation, poverty and the abuse of human rights".