Common Purpose - Leadership News

LONDON, 23 April 2012 - Forty emerging leaders from Arab and European cities will meet in Abu Dhabi this week to explore ways of creating and promoting entrepreneurship among unemployed youth in the two regions.

The inaugural Itijah Venture, a four-day leadership development course run by international organisation, Common Purpose in partnership with the Emirates Foundation, will take place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company from 23 to 26 April 2012.

Emerging leaders from seven cities which are Abu Dhabi, Budapest, Istanbul, Alexandria, Benghazi, Manchester and Amman are expected to attend to confront the challenge.

Unemployment has been a perennial problem for authorities in the Arab world and is a pressing challenge in Europe with over 5.5million young people unemployed in Europe and 24million in the Arab World.

During the four day Venture, participants will be set the challenge of boosting the number of young people who create new businesses using ICT (Information Communication Technology) and social media, a compelling task, common to both European and Arab regions.

Participants will explore the context of the before working up ideas (whether big or small) to feedback to the Itijah Advisory Group, which consists of experienced leaders from the participating cities.

"The Arab world has witnessed tremendous change over the past year and Common Purpose is excited to be expanding in the region during these important times" said Julia Middleton, Chief Executive and Founder, Common Purpose. "We are launching our latest Venture to bring together emerging leaders from Europe and the Arab world to work on a common challenge - youth unemployment - by looking at ways to promote entrepreneurship amongst young people. We are proud to hold the inaugural Itijah Venture in Abu Dhabi in partnership with the Emirates Foundation and believe that the will be a significant step forward for Common Purpose in the Arab world."

International sponsors supporting the leadership initiative include Cisco, Shell, Oracle, Newman's Own Foundation, PwC and DLA Piper. The local sponsor for the first Itijah Venture is Etihad Airways.

Commenting on the initiative, Maytha Al Habsi, Chief Programs Officer at Emirates Foundation, said: "This initiative highlights the Emirates Foundation's increased focus and commitment to the youth sector. We are pleased that Abu Dhabi will be the first Arab city to host Itijah. The event aspires to enhance cross cultural awareness, build new networks between young people and enable them to share and discuss ideas and visions to change the world around them."

Itijah, meaning 'direction' in Arabic, is part of a series of Ventures run by Common Purpose that will expand, enrich and energise relations between two or more locations.

Other Ventures Common Purpose is currently developing include Dishaa (India, UK), Dao Xiang (London, Shanghai), Pambili (South Africa, UK), Yon (Turkey, UK) Dou Heung (Hong Kong, Scotland) Kompas (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania).

If no action is taken to reduce emissions, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could reach double its pre-industrial level as early as 2035 [1]. Addressing this issue requires both developed and newly industrialised countries to work innovatively together.

Unique carbon cutting measures are happening locally in both India and the UK, but can those actions be accelerated and multiplied to reduce carbon emissions by 50% in the next five years?

This is the challenge that participants on the Dishaa Venture, run by leadership development organisation Common Purpose, will be tackling this week. Dishaa aims to expand, enrich and energise relations between India and the UK by investing in the development of the next generation of leaders from the two countries.

Many of the participants are from member organisations of the India UK CEO Forum [2], their presence showing how crucial tackling this challenge will be for stimulating global economic growth. Member organisations participating in Dishaa include:

• ITC Limited
• Hindustan Unilever
• Bharti Enterprises
• Standard Chartered
• 3i
• BAE Systems
• JCB
• Vodafone Group Plc

These business sector participants will be working with those from the public sector and NGOs to foster discussion and build shared approaches to this challenge. The diverse group of participants, 20 from the UK and 20 from India, are skilled and respected practitioners in their fields and looking to effect change both in their organisations and wider society.

During the Venture, held in London from 29 November to 3 December, they will meet with carbon experts including:

• Lord Nick Stern, Chair, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics (also a member of the Dishaa Advisory Group and UK-India roundtable)
• Ian Short, Chief Executive, Institute for Sustainability
• Nafees Meah, Head of Science, Climate, Energy, Science and Analysis, Department of Energy and Climate Change.

They will undertake research tasks beforehand, develop their thinking and work together to come up with innovative approaches to the challenge. They will then present their findings and models to a cross sector group of policy experts from the UK and India, potentially leading to future policy change that could help tackle what Lord Stern calls "one of the defining problems of the 21st century."

The Dishaa Venture is run in partnership with the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office and sponsored by United Business Media (UBM), Tilda, Cisco, Fly Kingfisher and PwC. British Prime Minister David Cameron is patron of Dishaa and launched the Venture in July 2010.

Deepak Kapoor, Chairman, PwC India explains why his organisation is proud to sponsor the Dishaa Venture: "What the world needs today is a compelling vision to drive and deliver change. It's a matter of pride for PwC India to be associated with the Dishaa Venture, which is doing this by bringing together diverse groups of young leaders from the UK and India to collaborate and work for a better tomorrow."

Founder and Chief Executive of Common Purpose Julia Middleton said: "The links between the UK and India are long standing but more importantly, they are deep, edgy, thoughtful and multi-dimensional. By learning together the participants will be able to enrich the connections between both countries and produce some very exciting ideas."

[1] The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/stern_review_report.htm

[2] Established by Indian Prime Ministers David Cameron and Manmohan Singh to strengthen economic ties http://ukindiaceoforum.com

In 2010 90,000 people were employed in the UK by Indian firms, with many more involved in the activities of British firms in India [1]. Indeed, over 1 million people travel between the UK and India every year [2].

There is a growing level of mutual investment between the two nations, but increased communication and collaboration between leaders from both countries is needed to support this.

This is why leadership development organisation Common Purpose's Dishaa Venture aims to expand, enrich and energise relations between India and the UK by investing in the development of the next generation of leaders from the two countries.

Common Purpose Ventures bring together diverse groups of leaders to foster discussion and build shared approaches to 21st century political, economic and social challenges.

Participants in this, the second Dishaa Venture, are skilled and respected practitioners in their fields and looking to effect change both in their organisations and wider society. The diverse group, 20 from the UK and 20 from India, will come together in London from 29 November to 3 December to develop their leadership skills by meeting, interviewing and debating with a range of leaders, all operating in very different contexts. Bringing this group together will expand the existing partnerships, friendships and dialogues that are already taking place between leaders in India and the UK.

Founder and Chief Executive of Common Purpose Julia Middleton said: "The links between the UK and India are long standing but more importantly, they are deep, edgy, thoughtful and multi-dimensional. By learning together the participants will be able to enrich the connections between both countries and produce some very exciting ideas."

"Dishaa showed me that by working together with a diverse group of people from both the UK and India, there is so much we can do and so many changes we can make in the world for the better" said Vandana Saxena Poria, CEO of Get Through Guides Pvt. Ltd and a graduate of the first Dishaa Venture held in Pune, India in February 2011.

The Dishaa Venture is run in partnership with the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office and sponsored by United Business Media (UBM), Tilda, Cisco, Fly Kingfisher and PwC. British Prime Minister David Cameron is patron of Dishaa and launched the Venture in July 2010.

Jennifer Duvalier, Group People & Culture Director, UBM explains why her organisation sponsors the Dishaa Venture: "UBM is a keen supporter of Dishaa, believing that individuals learn most powerfully when they have the opportunity to engage with impactful development experiences and to share their learning journey with a diverse network of fellow learners."

[1] A transcript of a speech given by the Prime Minister in Bangalore, India, on 28 July 2010 http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/pms-speech-in-india/

[2] British High Commission New Delhi http://ukinindia.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/working-with-india/india-uk-relations/

The second Dishaa Venture took place at the beginning of December 2011, bringing together emerging leaders from the UK and India who gathered in London to tackle the challenge:

"Unique carbon cutting measures are happening locally in India and the UK. How do we accelerate and multiply our actions to reduce carbon emissions by 50% in the next five years".

Initially daunted by the prospect of building low carbon futures, they finished with six highly innovative, exciting and usable models. The participants are continuing to develop and refine these models, and hope to be able to prototype some of their ideas in 2012. The feedback has been glowing, replicating the success of the first Dishaa Venture.

"Dishaa was a truly life changing experience, one that I suspect I will look back on as being defining" said Maghin Tamilarasan, Director of Strategic Development, Rolls-Royce plc, India.

The third Dishaa Venture will take place in Bangalore, India in November 2012.

Six new Ventures are planned for 2012. They include:

Dao Xiang (London-Shanghai) May 2012, London
Itijah (European Cities-Arab Cities) 23 - 26 April 2012, Abu Dhabi
Yon (UK-Turkey) Summer 2012, tbc
Dou Heung (Scotland-Hong Kong) Summer 2012, tbc
Phambili (UK-South Africa) Summer 2012, tbc
Kompas (Hungary-Czech Republic-Slovakia-Poland-Romania) Summer 2012, tbc

For more information about Dishaa or any of our other Ventures, contact Senior Course Director Amy Ritman.

Following the success of Dishaa, our initiative which brought together leaders from the UK and India, Common Purpose has launched Ventures.  

Ventures connect future leaders, across the world, to tackle challenges which are common and compelling, and big (enough to be worth the effort) and small (enough to be grasped).

Ventures encourage participants to work in new directions to develop innovative approaches to new (and old) problems, which is why the names of all our Ventures mean "direction" in different languages. Participants will present their findings to many different audiences over the year following the Venture.

Find out more and get involved at www.commonpurpose.org/ventures.