About
Our aim
The Performance Theatre Foundation was founded in 2000. It aims to inspire business leaders to realise a new kind of growth, to enlarge their strategies to see beyond quarterly results to deliver long-term value to both shareholders and society as a whole. The Foundation pursues this objective through a singular initiative – the Performance Theatre.
Our approach
Each year since 2000, the Theatre has brought together a select group of CEOs with world-class thinkers and leaders, drawn from across disciplines, philosophies, demographies and geographies. Participants are assembled in a stimulating setting of global historical weight and challenged to deploy their collective experience, knowledge and values to take on the biggest questions of the day – not shying away from taboo or difficulty. The agenda is forward-looking, encouraging participants to preempt challenges to global business by adopting a three-to-six year perspective.
Our history
In 2000, Osvald Bjelland had done the rounds of the traditional conference circuit dozens of times. He had suffered ‘death by PowerPoint’ and yawned through dry lectures. But instead of going on a conference hiatus, he decided to shake things up.
He realised that the business world needed a forum where it could exchange knowledge with innovators from other fields. It needed a forum attended by real change-makers, and non business people who could shake up old views and blaze new trails.
He used the model of the theatre. Throughout history, theatres have played host to the biggest debates of the day. At the theatre, both the actors and the audience create a unique, shared experience.
And so, The Performance Theatre was born – fusing influential people, organisations and ideas in a symbolic setting. It was first staged in Bergen, Norway in 2000. Since then, it’s been staged in London, Moscow, Budapest, Oslo, Wolfsburg, St Petersburg, New Delhi, Venice, Washington DC and Beijing.
A driving force has been our world-class partners: Det Norske Veritas (DNV), eni, Gazprom Export, MasterCard, Royal Dutch Shell, Tata Group and Telenor Group.
Our vision
An integral part of each Performance Theatre is to inspire better leadership. At each theatre we present the Inspired Leadership Award. The Inspired Leadership Award celebrates global business pioneers who embody the Theatre’s idea of what a leader should be: visionaries who combine outstanding business performance with values and behaviours that sustain and strengthen the human and natural environments in which their organisations operate. This is the breed of leadership business needs; this is the breed of business leadership the world needs.