Innovation

Winning Businesses Prioritize Human Wellbeing

Overview CES Tech Talk podcast, now in its sixth season, features interviews with industry experts who bring you an insider’s look at what to expect at CES 2023 in January. New episodes drop weekly; subscribe via your favorite podcast platform for the latest updates. This week’s topic focuses on how businesses can do well by doing good. Walt Stinson of the World Academy of Art and Science, who also is a seasoned tech executive, discusses the many ways that business interests and human security align.

This year, CES has partnered for the first time with the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) to focus on Human Security for All (HS4A), a United Nations concept and CES 2023 theme that encompasses food access, healthcare, environmental protection, economic security and more. Exploring what this means, why it matters and how it will be displayed at CES 2023 is Walt Stinson, a director of the HS4A campaign.
 
As a business leader in the tech industry, Walt also helps drive appreciation for, and discussions of, business models that elevate human security as a strategic imperative. As he points out, modern societies have national security and military security; now it’s time to advance human security.  Walt explains all of this, very persuasively, in episode 10, Why Human Security is Good Business, of the CES Tech Talk podcast series
 

Takeaways

 
  • A key to business survival is adapting to change -- when there’s innovation, there’s resistance, often a sign that change is needed and inevitable
     
  • Human Security for All is a campaign of the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security and WAAS whose president and CEO, Gary Jacobs, enlisted Walt for his business perspective
     
  • The human security concept builds on the sustainable development goals that were developed by the U.N. and Agenda 2030 – WAAS and Walt are working to bring the concept of human security into the tech space to make tech leaders aware of its importance and how they can benefit
     
  • The world is facing a technological revolution, a revolution in people's attitudes about the workplace in general that is driven by the pandemic, by the war in Ukraine, by climate change, all issues that require a multilateral approach to a solution that reflects consumer aspirations  
 

They Said It

To think that nothing's going to change as the composition of the planet changes is naive. I think that we're a little behind the curve. I think that we've got a little bit of catching up to do as an industry. We've got catching up to do as companies if we want to continue to be relevant in the future.

Walt Stinson (00:00)

I describe [the Human Security for All campaign] as a new paradigm of security. I describe it as a definition of security that's people-centered. It complements other concepts of security like military security and national security. But I feel that human security has been neglected, perhaps underinvested in. I think that it deserves more focus than it has been getting. And the U.N. feels the same way.

Walt Stinson (06:30)

Human Security for All (HS4A) at CES 2023


Join Walt at 2023 CES where, in his role as a director of HS4A, and with his WAAS colleagues, he’ll shepherd the launch of a global campaign for human security in partnership with the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security.
 

Walton Stinson, Director, Human Security for All Campaign, World Academy of Art and Science


Walton (Walt) Stinson is co-founder and CEO of ListenUp, an industry-leading technology integrator/retailer celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. He’s also chairman of ProSource, a $6 billion buying group and a director of Human Security for All (HS4A), the global campaign of the World Academy of Art and Science and the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security. He holds an MBA from the University of Colorado and a blockchain technology certification from MIT. Among his many other business credentials, Walt is co-founder and president of the PARA trade association and an inductee to the Consumer Technology Hall of Fame, Class of 2009.

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