“The right thing to do”
Anne-Christine Ahrenkiel, Chief People Officer, took part in a global panel debate on The Future CEO – a role that is changing due to more focus on environment, diversity - and Covid-19. See link below.
Every year, global shipping’s eyes rest on Denmark during October when the Danish Maritime Days event gather leaders and top executives from around the world to discuss the state and future of shipping.
And if you have any doubt about the impact of Covid-19 on global shipping, it would have been removed by the conference: no one came to Denmark for this year’s event, it all took place on Microsoft Teams - even the traditional reception ending the programme.
But not everything had changed. As usual, DFDS contributed to the event, this time with our Chief People Officer Anne-Christine Ahrenkiel taking part in a webinar and panel debate about The Future CEO on 28 October. The event was facilitated by Tomas Kristiansen, editor of Shippingwatch. It also featured Mark Charman and Stine Martinussen, CEOs of the global, recruitment companies Faststream and HELM, respectively.
Eternal values and moral compass
According to Anne-Christine, the future CEO must, in addition to eternal virtues like commercial skills, financial skills and hard work, also be curios and open-minded, not just about their own industries, but across. She or he must always be ready to take charge – otherwise you will not demonstrate what is expected of you at an executive level. “However, what stands out even more this year (…) is that a CEO needs to be explicit on her/his moral compass. In a year with sudden focus on people’s health and safety, the environment, diversity and inclusion – topics that are not easily measured - a CEO needs to be explicit about what the right thing to do is, even if there is no KPI for it. The right thing to do has to come from the CEO’s own moral compass - and the organisation needs that.”
Watch the debate here