Our moral tradition as Europe’s strongest corporate asset
By Nick Van Langendonck, author of Doing Good Works and founder of the Unbossers
Network
Europe must seek its own “Magnificent Seven”
Last weekend I read an interview in Belgian’s Financial NewsPaper De Tijd with Rudy De Winter, CEO of the company of the year 2024 X-Fab , and Steven Claes, the new CEO of EY Belgium. They argued that Europe can only hold its own in the global economy by up venture capital, technological innovation and smart regulation. It sounds logical. And yes, we need to invest in AI, quantum, biotech and green transition. But those who think that Europe can get its competitiveness only from financial and technological muscle are mistaken of battlegrounds.
Because let’s face it: we will never be faster than Silicon Valley, never as massive as China, never as hungry as India. Our strength lies elsewhere. Europe initially sailed on a different compass – one of civilisation, faith in progress and moral ambition. It was precisely this spirit that led to the welfare state, human rights treaties and companies where employees want to do more than meet targets: they want to contribute to something bigger.
That is our only truly unique selling proposition. Not one of profit, but of meaning.
Meaningful innovation
European companies should ask not how to innovate faster, but how to innovate more meaningfully. Not: how do we beat our competitors? But: how do we build companies where people voluntarily and motivated contribute to a collective story that transcends them?
The answer is cultural, not merely economic. Our biggest lever is that we in Europe dare to believe that work can be more than a job with a salary. That organisations can also be communities. That profitability and justice can go hand in hand.
Companies that succeed in making that belief tangible – in their decision-making, their leadership, their rituals and their reward systems – will not only become more attractive to young talent, but also more resilient and innovative in the long run.
Research time and again: engaged employees are more innovative, productive, healthy and loyal. But engagement does not come from higher wages, ping-pong tables or yoga sessions. It arises when people feel in their daily activities that their contribution matters, when they are given room to think and act in line with their inspiration.
In our European roots, somewhere there still lies the cultural soil to build organisations that truly serve people and society. Companies where not just the shareholder is central, but the employee, the customer, the planet – and the relationship between the three.
Doing Good Works as a business compass
With the Unbossers Network, we have been building an alternative to dominant corporate thinking for three years in cooperation with some 40 companies. Not a new management model, but a moral compass that provides direction in turbulent times founded on the seven cornerstones that have always been underlying our civilisation and belief in progress: faith, hope, love, courage, justice, wisdom and moderation.
This universal and timeless compass aims to help people at all levels in companies to act not only more effectively, but above all more humanly and meaningfully – also and especially when the going gets tough. Think of decisions during a round of redundancies, restructuring or ethical dilemmas that cannot be captured in numbers.
It is not a utopia, but a concrete and applicable framework that supports leaders and teams to make choices that resonate with our deepest European values. A countermovement against cold efficiency thinking – and at the same time an invitation to every European company to put our moral tradition back at the centre.
In short: the title of the article in De Tijd is correct – it is indeed time to magnificent again. But not only in what we make. Above all in what we stand for. The battle for Europe’s economic future will not be decided in the boardrooms of investment funds, but in the heads and hearts of millions of working people. If we succeed in building companies that people really want to believe in, we will not only be relevant – we will be directional again.
