The moral case for gender equality is obvious. It should not need any explanation.

The young give us hope because young people are certain their best days still lie ahead - which explains why they're absolutely convinced they can change the world for the better.

Practically, systemic thinking can be used to identify problems, analyze their boundaries, design strategies and policy interventions, forecast and measure their expected impacts, implement them, and monitor and evaluate their successes and failures.

It cannot be right in a world of increasing human progress - whether in medicine, space exploration or renewable energy - that so many people are denied the most basic human rights.

We all have responsibility to stop violence and discrimination against women, whether it's in our businesses, in our homes, or on our streets.

Too many companies are running their business into the ground, I would argue, by being myopically short-term focused on the shareholder.

My career has been a level of serendipity all along. I've never planned anything out more than a few years. All the places we lived - the 12, 13 countries - and the companies I worked for were a combination of circumstances.

I say to a lot of people you have to measure success in terms of progress, not in terms of end state.

As CEO of Unilever, my personal mission is to galvanize our company to be an effective force for good.

I don't have a problem crying when I need to cry.

At the end of the day, people will follow you or people will be energised by you if they buy into your vision or purpose. So the most important thing is to be true to yourself. That's why I would say to be a great leader - you, first and foremost, have to be a great human being. And sharing that purpose and sharing the values.

The great challenge of the 21st century is to provide good standards of living for 7 billion people without depleting the earth's resources or running up massive levels of public debt. To achieve this, government and business alike will need to find new models of growth that are in both environmental and economic balance.

Every few decades, we have an opportunity to make a drastic change to the way we live our lives. We get a chance to design the building blocks of our daily routines, the infrastructure that will support and accompany us for the years to come - from the trains and trams we ride, the offices we work in, to the energy that powers our homes.

The world faces enormous human development and environmental challenges, from poverty and disease to food security and climate change.

I don't subscribe to, 'Here are the top ten tips to successful leadership,' or, 'How to learn leadership in ten minutes.' A leader is someone who gives positive energy to others which then results in a better change than would have happened. I think everyone is a leader.

We need new, dynamic models for growth through the sharing economy, using big data to unlock new insights and adopting closed-loop cycles.

Land is a great example of how we can manage and invest in sustainable infrastructure for economic, social, and environmental gains. Its use - and misuse - is at the heart of the challenge for food, fuel, and fibre.

Let's work together to make our economies strong and our climate sustainable. It can be done.

Empowering women is one of the most important things we - and indeed, every business - can do.

For Unilever, investing in women is an imperative. The business and social cases for doing so are inextricably linked.

Forest nations willing to do more than their fair share to solve the climate crisis should be rewarded through results-based payments.

Business must go on reiterating its absolute commitment to embedding human rights in all it does, driving industry change through collaboration with governments, international organizations, and each other.

I actually am a capitalist, and I believe in shareholders. But I believe in them as a result of what I do, not as a reason for what I'm doing. The same with profits - profits alone cannot be an objective. It has to have a purpose.

There is still too much pressure on short-termism in terms of the drivers of success.

There are some basic human needs that are the same. Everybody wants to succeed.

I grew up in a small town in the Netherlands which, for years, had been a center of textile production.

Companies are the first to see the costs of climate change.

I work a lot with blind people in my spare time outside of Unilever, and I count my blessings every day.

It is our responsibility as businesses to deliver ambitious solutions and technologies to bring us low-carbon, inclusive and sustainable growth.

Africa is a vibrant, varied continent with a growing consumer base.

Every region in the world faces challenges - and Africa is hugely diverse, so its own challenges are varied.

Africa's vibrancy and entrepreneurial spirit is un-matched. There's huge potential here to grow business, create jobs, and to improve living standards.

Unilever brings together the resources and experience of a multinational company alongside our deep local roots, which enables us to grow a genuinely African consumer goods business.

My father worked in a tyre factory. My mother worked as a teacher.

I've always been bothered by systems that don't work for everybody. It doesn't mean we're all equal. I am not naive about that. But we should have a more inclusive society.

P&G started in 1837, Nestle in 1857. These companies have been around for so long because they are in tune with society. They are very responsible companies, despite the challenges that they sometimes deal with, all the criticism they get.

Unilever has been around for 100-plus years. We want to be around for several hundred more years.

Left unchecked, climate change risks not only making the poorest poorer, but pulling the emerging middle classes back into poverty, too.

We need more food, more forests, better livelihoods for smallholder farmers, and lower emissions. If we want any of them, we must have all of them.

The planet's forests are essential for life.

Providing financial incentives for both local communities and national governments to conserve and restore forests also makes sense. It will put an economic value on these precious natural resources and drive the right behaviours from both government and business.

If too many people feel excluded from the system and cannot access its benefits, they will ultimately rebel against it.

Addressing the weaknesses of capitalism will require us, above all, to do two things: first, to take a long-term perspective, and second, to re-set the priorities of business.

Permissible growth in the future has to be based on sustainable and equitable models.

The commitment to put an end to illegal deforestation and develop sustainable alternatives for commodities like palm oil and soy, for example, is an inspiring illustration of what can be achieved when governments and industry partners come together determined to bring about transformational market-wide changes.

At Unilever, we operate in 190 countries with two billion people using our products daily. We take climate seriously because we know that it impacts those two billion people - and that means it impacts us, too.

When the climate hurts, people and businesses also feel the pain.

Leading businesses are making large strides in ensuring a sustainable future, but ultimately, they can only do so much.

To achieve policy stability and certainty, we need to establish a meaningful price on carbon and cut the billions of dollars spent each year on fossil-fuel subsidies, along with well-structured financial tools and rules.

If the world wants a climate deal and new development agenda that's good for the economy, for the poor, and for businesses, the path forward needs to include forests.