PREDICTING GLOBAL TRENDS - predicting the future to create advantage today
minimising future risk creating sustainable advantage creating opportunity
CREATING SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS
Is sustainability the new buzz word, the new fashion phrase? Do people – especially in business – actually know what they are talking about? Or do they just speak what they think are the right words to speak at that time … and hope no one will notice they rarely practice what they preach?
- Do they think the world does not need to think and act sustainably?
- Do they think the world can continue doing what it is doing ad infinitum – regardless of consequence?
- Are these consequences someone else’s problem?
- Do they think if they speak the right words, jump on the right bandwagon … but not do anything – people won’t notice?
Sustainability means making a difference. It means making a lasting difference. It means creating long term benefit, not stealing through short term gain.
Yes, the world needs to recognise sustainability. No, the world cannot continue doing what it is doing ad infinitum. In the past the unwanted consequences have been someone else’s problem … but now it is a growing problem for all of us, regardless of who we are, where we are, what we have.
This is something you need to understand.
Love it or loathe it, it’s a basic fact that business drives our world. It is business that has created the world we know. It is business that has the ability to change the world into something better.
Don’t look to politicians for guidance. They invariably move along the line of least resistance.
You can only look partially towards consumers for answers … but only if the consumer is galvanised, which is a fickle concept especially in times of severe economic flux. Any yet consumers ARE starting to become galvanised in their expectation of ethical trading.
For once business must take the lead. This must be a visible lead. It can be marketed as a moral lead for the betterment of the world – but it will always have to be rooted in revenue generation and market share. This hardly matters. What matters is the outcome. What matters is that business actually engages in sustainability rather than just talking about it and hope some of it will rub off on them without much effort.
Make no mistake: a lack of sustainability is bad for business.
QUESTION: presently and in general, is business sustainable?
ANSWER: far from it.
But … just what is sustainable business? Sustainability means many things to many people. Often it is used as a smokescreen by the unscrupulous or the plain stupid.
"Sustainable Business" is defined as the process by which long term - and widespread - benefits are gained.
Widespread, meaning further than any particular business or the employees of that business, encompassing the suppliers, the producers, the consumers. This means shared benefit and a joint future based on trust, mutual respect and development.
Oh come on, please don’t laugh. Is this really such a foreign concept?
Straight away you will see the difference between "sustainable business" and the type of business prevalent today. The vast majority of todays business is fixated on short term gain ... at any cost. This means they hammer down the price paid to the producer - regardless of consequence. It means they search for new ways to cut costs - regardless of consequence. It means they spend vast amounts of money trying to persuade the consumer their product is far better than anyone elses - regardless of the cost.
This creates an environment where everyone is struggling. This creates an environment where everyone is fighting for a share either to survive or to hoard. To some, this may sound an ideal environment. And yet mark my words … the world is changing fast. What YOU have created is not sustainable. The day will come, soon it will come, when you too will struggle just to survive. The change is already starting to take place across the world.
Most of the present day business could not be further from being sustainable if it tried - regardless of the flashy marketing and sudden conversion to "green" or ethical initiatives. Present business is governed by profit.
Make no mistake, profit is good. But not at any cost. Not regardless of cost. Not if it is short lived. Not if you have to expend vast amounts of resource on running to stand still. What sort of intelligence is that?
It's all a bit mad, isn't it? It just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make financial sense. It doesn’t make sense in terms of security the long term future. But then again, in a world fixated on short term gain … is long term growth and development simply an afterthought?
It needs to be more than an afterthought. It needs to be more than the latest buzz word. Being fixated on short term gain means at some stage you will fall and someone else will take your place. Being actively involved in sustainable growth means you protect your long term future by sharing the risks and sharing the rewards. This is intelligence.
The business that seeks to create that long term future will look at sustainability. The business that is sustainable will look at its activities in a holistic manner. Profitability is only a piece of the jigsaw. An important piece – yes. Without profitability there will be no business. And yet the philosophy of profit maximisation is what has created the unwanted consequences of globalisation. It is this philosophy that MUST be looked at closely – and changed.
The sustainable business will look at their producers and suppliers – but not as a means of reducing business costs. The business will look at the energy it consumes. It will look at its staff and working practices. It will look at its carbon and pollution output. It will look at its consumers. It will look at its philosophy of profit maximisation – and importantly how it can break the costly and destructive cycle of short term growth at the expense of long term development.
The sustainable business will understand what it wants and needs to achieve. This is far more than profit maximisation.
Competition is good ... but not when you have to use up such vast amounts of finite resource just to stay afloat.
The time has come to change all of this.
The sustainable business will look at, for example, the relation between the price paid to the producer and the maximisation of profit. The sustainable business will have to be brave. It will be led by brave people ... of which, in reality there are few. The sustainable business will say - hmm - so these producers are really suffering because for years we've screwed them on cost - and look at the trouble it's all causing.
What’s the point of working with producers – and then actively destroying these producers, creating a whole range of unwanted consequences, and then having to find new producers at higher cost?
What would happen if we increased the price we paid to them by a small %?
Would this really affect our bottom line?
We would create life long partners rather than fleeting suppliers who hated us with a vengeance. Oh, and by the way, we could use this as a far more effective marketing tool than that vast amount of money we've wasted so far in persuading people we’re better for their lives and greener than green.
Just how much does any organisation spend of its limited resources in advertising and marketing to tell people how good it is? Actions speak louder than words. Why not show people how good it is? Why not save on that vast cycle of marketing expense and market the organisation properly, showing sustainability, showing benefit, showing development?
So … just what can sustainability deliver?
You mean, apart from a more secure position in a turbulent future? Apart from shared benefits and risks? Apart from greater innovation? Apart from extensive cost savings? Apart from greater development where ever the business touches? Apart from averting some of the more unsavoury negative consequences of globalisation?
Well … it can also deliver something that is quite rare these days. It can make a difference. In todays world this is something that is required quite desperately.
Hmm - something tells me sustainable business is best. And yet, strange as human nature is, we are still barbarians who perceive the world in terms of threat. We firmly believe that in this life and death struggle for greater profitability we have to destroy everything in our path - even those who work for us.
It's all a bit mad, isn't it?
The world needs courage and vision. Just where are all the courageous people when you really need them?
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