Annual Celebration Speech 2025: Peter Møllgaard
Your Excellencies, Minister, distinguished guests, colleagues and students – dear CBS Community
When I was 12 years, I learned to play the classical guitar. Every week, I took lessons with a music teacher. Back then, it was probably the Beatles who inspired me the most.
But today, my favourite is the Brazilian composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, who mixed classical music with folk music. And every now and then I still take my guitar and play a piece for my family and friends.
Music means a lot to me, and my wife and I often go to jazz cafes and concerts…
I even thought about bringing my guitar tonight…. Because I would like us to play together…. But I’ll get back to that!
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First, let me emphasize that I am truly pleased to see you all. I hope we’ll have a wonderful evening together. I hope you will enjoy the food and the company.
And I hope you will find time to engage in conversations about responsible leadership.
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At CBS, an important part of our strategy is to continuously ask ourselves one simple question: How do we stay relevant to society?
The answer, however, is a bit more complicated. Particularly when it comes to responsible leadership. Because the world is undergoing a paradigm shift.
We are facing geopolitical changes. Climate changes. Technological changes. Changes that are significant in themselves - but they also intersect with each other.
And a decision, made in one market, in one part of the world today, can have profound implications in another market, in another part of the world, tomorrow.
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Certainly, leaders have always faced challenges. We all know about the Stock Market Crash in 1929, World War II and the 1973 Oil Crisis. But still, it is fair to say that the terms of leadership are changing.
The speed is higher. The uncertainty is higher. The complexity is higher.
And today, and even more in the years to come, leaders will experience a strong political and public demand to take on societal responsibility. They will have to manage this transformation in times of uncertainty, wars, and polarization.
This requires new skills in leadership. And new ways in developing them.
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As a business university, CBS naturally has an important role to play. For leaders of today, as well as for leaders of tomorrow.
CBS is the university in Denmark offering the widest range of continuing education programmes and lifelong learning possibilities. And when it comes to the leaders of tomorrow – our students of today – we offer them a certain set of transformative capabilities, called The Nordic Nine.
These capabilities are designed to prepare our students to contribute to solving societal challenges with compassion for themselves, for others, and for the environment. The Nordic Nine are integrated into all our programmes, ensuring that CBS graduates embody the principles of responsible management and ethical leadership.
Furthermore, we have more than 100 researchers dedicated to green research. We are strong in digitalization, and in the coming years, geopolitics will become a special focus area for CBS. We have launched our CBS Leadership Centre which brings together leadership research and teaching power across CBS departments and programmes.
So, we stand on solid ground. But we also realize we are facing a huge challenge.
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According to a new Global Risks Report from the World Economic Forum, business leaders worldwide see misinformation as the greatest short-term threat. And the climate crisis is considered the greatest long-term threat.
And our own CBS Leadership Think Tank has identified a number of significant changes which call for responsible leadership. They include:
1. Sustainability: Responsible leadership means that we aim to reduce global warming to below 2 degrees. This requires extraordinary planetary leadership at COP30 in Brazil later this year, now that the United States have withdrawn from the Paris Agreement. For this reason, business leaders must continue to reduce their CO2 footprint.
2.Digitalization: AI revolutions can be the solution of complex problems and introduce new ways of welfare. But AI can also turn the labor market upside down and threaten democracies.
3.Geopolitical risks: President Trump´s breakup with normal diplomatic relations add new uncertainties to an already uncertain world order. We are witnessing a fundamental change in existing power structures. This will challenge global economies. And disrupt market structures as well as supply chains.
All this calls for a new type of leadership. And according to The Risk Report 360, which was prepared for our leadership conference yesterday, the answer could be a shared social leadership. This includes politics, business, and academia in a committed effort. The model is inspired by the Danish 'Green Agricultural Agreement,' established to solve climate problems in agriculture. The mission is to develop solid answers to wicked problems and turn them into possibilities.
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Let me finally quote another point from The CBS leadership Think Tank. Today's leaders must be musical. Because leaders must orchestrate different rhythms at the same time. They must be fast and agile and respond to the changes in the world. And at the same time, they must set priorities for the long run.
Tonight, I would like to take that metaphor a bit further.
Today's leaders must be musical in several ways. They must be able to sense the music others are playing. Especially when the compositions are about political and ethical agendas in society.
Today’s leaders must be able to compose new harmonies, when others suddenly introduce experimental instruments and disrupt current business models.
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All this brings me back to my guitar and the lessons I took as a child. I had a very good teacher. But back then, he never taught me how to play with others. Or how to improvise.
It takes a lot to play in an orchestra and relate to all instruments at the same time. Especially if some of the others are improvising. But this is just what responsible leadership is about.
So, rational thinking is just one part of leadership. Musicality is another.
This is why I want us to play together, metaphorically speaking. The CBS Community and you. Let us inspire each other.
Because development in leadership and the world around us will go even faster. And so will the need for highly advanced and useful knowledge about leadership.
Fortunately, we are already underway. For instance, CBS orchestrates interaction between accomplished leadership practitioners and researchers.
We need close interaction between companies, organizations and the CBS Community.
Together, we can be musical. Together, we can develop new thinking about leadership. Together, we can transform society with business.
I hope you’ll have an inspiring evening. Thank you