Rick Little, president and CEO of the ImagineNations Group, offered inspirational message

“Despite the range in this room, you all will have a tremendous impact on influencing your company on issues regarding corporate social responsibility beyond what you know. Some of you will have a profound impact. Imagine the future, and help to shape it within your organization.”

This was one of the inspirational messages keynote speaker Rick Little shared with attendees of The Center’s 2005 conference during his closing address. (A video is available of this keynote address.)

For nearly 30 years, Little has been working to build partnerships among companies, non-profits and governments to improve the conditions and prospects for children, youth and families. He is widely known for his work in developing strategic corporate citizenship initiatives with companies that result in creating sustainable, positive impacts on their workers, and in the countries and communities where they operate.

In 1989, Rick led a process involving hundreds of leaders from dozens of countries that resulted in the establishment of the International Youth Foundation (IYF) with the largest charitable investment ever made by the Kellogg Foundation (more than $68 million). IYF has grown to become a leading player in advancing the cause of young people and building partnerships between civil society, governments and the private sector. In 1975, as creator and Founder of Quest International, Rick helped to establish a formula for a successful set of youth development programs and strategies for teaching life skills and character education that have had broad appeal in many cultures and countries. Quest programs have been adapted and implemented in more than 38,000 schools in over 30 countries.

Two years ago Little launched the ImagineNations Group, an alliance of individuals and organizations who care passionately about young people throughout the world and want to create positive change. “A synergy develops by having others at the table,” he believes.

ImagineNations focuses on youth employment. To demonstrate the reasons behind this focus, Little cited several statistics:

• Youth unemployment is at the highest point ever worldwide.
• 1.2 billion youth are entering the global marketplace, mostly in developing countries; the most optimistic projection for new jobs created in the near future is approximately 300 million.
• In North Africa alone, 54 million new jobs will have to be created over the next 15 years to keep up with the youth entering the marketplace; yet 5 million is the most optimistic projected number of jobs that could be created during this period in that region.
• On average, 72 percent of youth from North Africa to the Middle East to Asia are not in school past age 14, but there are no jobs for them and they have no access to capital.

What, then, are these youth to do? The answer, said Little, lies in self-employment, small business and micro-employment. The situation will change, he said, because of intention, goodwill, people with a vision and strategy. “We’re attempting to create a new system for young people,” he said. “We’re engaging the media, young people, investors, and companies.”

Little shared his difficult childhood, and told about a youth worker who became a mentor and showed him a brighter future. As an optimist, he said, he usually tries to find the positive in everything. But the positive doesn’t usually happen on its own; it’s usually through the efforts of people with good intentions. 

“Organizational transformation can only be achieved through the personal transformation of people,” said Little. He encouraged those in the audience to keep their minds open to new ideas. Quoting Eric Hoffer, Little said, “In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”

When Little opened the floor for participants to share lessons learned at the conference, several people spoke, sharing examples such as:

• Look for local initiatives that are important to communities or countries, not global solutions.
• No company has ever complied itself to greatness.
• The concept of ecovation: learn from nature and adapt that technology.

Little asked the audience – what do you do with a conference such as this? “Be learners,” he encouraged the participants, “not learned.”

The UN Millennium Development Goals, which aim to eradicate poverty, promote education and gender equality, and improve health worldwide, provide a good starting place for companies wishing to create positive change. In fact, said Little, “a growing number of companies worldwide, whether knowingly or not, are now working against a backdrop of these goals. They’re a good conceptual framework within which to work.”

Little wants to open people’s eyes so they will invest in young people in other countries. “Millions of young people around the world need role models to look up to, both people and institutions,” Little said. “We have a chance, through intention, strategy, and goodwill, to be those role models. I challenge each of us as we go back, as institutions, as people, as parents, to be irrationally committed to act with goodwill, with intention, with strategy.”

» View video of this keynote address