This month’s message offers a slightly more personal note. My book, Sustainable Success: How Businesses Win as a Force For Good, has been published.
The book challenges the traditional view of sustainability as a regulatory checkbox or cost center. Instead, I believe that sustainability drives innovation, improves operational resilience and enhances long-term business performance when it is approached in a strategic, thoughtful way. Importantly, the concepts outlined in the book transcend regulatory frameworks. Here is a preview.
Introducing the Cycle of Good
In an early chapter, I explain that a link between creativity and good in society has always existed, and the pattern of “good brings new” repeats throughout history. The key for forward-thinking businesses is to recognize the Cycle of Good and follow its path.
The Cycle of Good starts with a company or entrepreneur identifying a cultural shift in society. First movers and fast followers sense these winds of change. They see what the customers, employees and communities of tomorrow will need – and they take the risks and start to innovate. Eventually, what was new becomes mainstream with mass adoption.
Transformation and innovation
When guided by positive intent, what I refer to in the book as Noble Purpose, first movers and fast followers have an opportunity to do the right thing while creating long-term profitability. They become a Force for Good while delivering revenue growth, ongoing transformation and innovation.
Let me offer a few true-life examples from the book of how leaders combine purpose and innovation to produce stellar results and sustainable success:
- Outdoor apparel company Patagonia holds true to its Noble Purpose of changing the way business is done for the benefit of the environment and ecology. I explore how Patagonia found its purpose and became a successful enterprise and sustainability leader over its 40-year history.
- Founded in 1957, retailer Toys “R” Us grew into a global chain, with the biggest, best toy selection anywhere. Five decades later, battered by e-commerce and fierce competition, the company was floundering. Yet with its new, unique retail experience in airports and cruise ships, Toys “R” Us has become an innovator again.
- The race to find a Covid-19 vaccine takes purpose and innovation much further. Developing and producing a vaccine – fast, to counteract a worsening pandemic – summoned unprecedented collaboration between industry and academia. Within just nine months of the World Health Organization declaring Covid-19 a global pandemic, people were receiving vaccinations. Purpose, expertise, technology and data, supported by innovative processes, made this medical miracle possible.
Lions lead. Ostriches avoid.
Anecdotes and examples like these illustrate the performance of those who understand the need to go above and beyond. I call them the “Lions.” They are the first movers and fastest followers, making them a catalyst for change. Organizations such as the ones mentioned above take a Lion’s approach to innovation.
Lions lead more efficient and cost-effective businesses, retain good people and attract investment over the long term. They understand that sustainable practices strengthen supply chains and drive change for the good of society. Ostriches, on the other hand, avoid proactive, positive action and hide their heads in the sand, only acting when laws or regulations require it.
Quite simply, the Lions recognize sustainability as an ongoing commitment that fosters resilience and provides long term business value. Resilience enables companies to withstand disruption and respond swiftly to shifting pressures. Businesses anchored in sustainability maintain their focus on lasting success and contribute to a brighter future for all.
— Paul
