Who are companies for? Are they just for one group of people, such as shareholders, or do they earn their legitimacy by serving many different groups of people at the same time? 

In this issue of International Commerce Review, Nestlé CEO Paul Bulke provides one clear perspective. The foundations of sustainable success lie in creating shared value – and the trick is knowing how to do so in an integrated, systemic way. Thus, Nestlé food products don’t only aim to taste good, they also seek to deliver health and wellness. The process of making them provides jobs and, if organized properly, environmentally sustainable economic development. And if this is done well, the net result is consistent delivery of shareholder value too. Understanding value chains in these terms has far-reaching implications for the whole industry.

This is the message from its first co-chairs, Muhtar Kent and Lars Olofsson, the CEOs of The Coca-Cola Company and Carrefour Group, respectively.

In their interview, they outline an ambitious vision for the CGF and explain how its activities will be focused around five key pillars: emerging trends, sustainability, health and wellness, operational excellence and knowledge sharing and developing people. ‘New Ways of Working Together’ as well as with consumers will provide the foundation to address the core issue of sustainability, “which lies at the heart of our agenda”.

This message mirrors the challenge put forth by Prince Charles in his speech at the inaugural CGF conference, also summarized in this issue, to take global responsibility for reducing the carbon footprint and improving the sustainability of this huge industry.

The contribution of the International Commerce Review is to ask the leading voices in the industry to articulate these new challenges, mobilise the best brains in the academic world to help develop answers to them, and report on pioneering success stories.

Why and when it's better to spend less on marketing?

Consumer goods suppliers and retailers desperately need systematic strategies for efficient growth. Some companies seem to have discovered this secret of momentum - the ability to efficiently deliver sales and profits growth year after year. What is it? 

In the article written by Jean-Claude Larréché you will get interesting insights on this subject.

Ludo Van der Heyden is Solvay Professor of Technological Innovation at INSEAD, Fontainebleau and Singapore

Thomas Limberg is a student at the Leipzig Graduate School of Management (HHL) writing a doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Ludo Van der Heyden