Is empathy training another workplace fad, or can it really help companies succeed?
When the chief executive of Microsoft writes a book about empathy, it’s no surprise that business leaders around the world pay attention. “It’s a value I have learned to deeply appreciate and is something I talk about a lot,” Satya Nadella said at an event to publicise his book, Hit Refresh. “I think of it as not just a nice-to-have, but core to the innovation agenda in the company.”
Belinda Parmar, founder of consultancy the Empathy Business, believes empathy can yield tangible benefits for entrepreneurs. She has published an empathy index in the Harvard Business Review for the past four years, based on an analysis of internal culture, ethics, leadership and brand perception of 170 of the world’s biggest companies. The top 10 – which included Facebook, Alphabet (Google), LinkedIn and Netflix in 2016 – typically increase their market value within a year, by more than twice as much as the bottom 10 companies, according to research conducted by the Empathy Business.