Both practically and morally, corporate leaders can no longer sit on the sidelines of major societal shifts or treat human and planetary issues as "someone else's problem." For their own good, they must play an active role in addressing our biggest shared challenges. The economy won't thrive unless people and the planet are thriving. In this bold manifesto, consultant and author Andrew Winston and former Unilever CEO Paul Polman describe their vision of a "net positive" company--one that grows by helping the world flourish. Drawing on examples from Unilever and other leading companies, they outline four critical paths businesses can take to prosper today and win in the future. They can operate first in service of multiple stakeholders--which then benefits investors (as opposed to putting shareholders above all others); take full ownership of all company impacts; embrace deep partnerships, even with critics; and tackle systemic challenges by rethinking advocacy and the relationship with governments. No company has yet reached the ambitious goal of becoming net positive. But a growing number have begun the journey--unlocking greater value for their businesses while helping solve larger problems for the benefit of all.
Conventional wisdom says it takes three to five years and tens of millions of dollars to digitize a corporation's supply chain. However, a few companies have reaped major benefits--including higher revenue and customer retention--with a faster, cheaper approach. It involves assembling available data; using analytics to understand and predict customers' and suppliers' behavior and optimize inventory, production, and procurement; and adding automation to revamp or introduce processes. The transformation requires three main initiatives: replacing consensus forecasts with one unified view of demand, changing one-size-fits-all supply strategies to segmented ones, and creating a plan to continually balance supply and demand and manage deviations or disruptions.
When people feel that their career progress is frustratingly slow or has sputtered out, they can become dangerously demoralized. Without a clear understanding of what constitutes a reasonable pace for advancement or why peers are outachieving them, they write off promising paths, downscale their ambitions, or quit altogether. But often these people are simply not giving themselves enough time to succeed. They need to cultivate "strategic patience." What does that entail? Five things: doing research on what it realistically takes to achieve their goals; recognizing "raindrops," or small wins that are early indicators of success; abandoning harmful social comparisons and instead leveraging their relationships in a positive way; appreciating how far they've come rather than continually moving the goalposts; and understanding that it's OK for their career goals to shift as long as they keep moving in the right direction.
A female executive considers whether a staff job is a dead end or the next step to becoming CEO. This fictional case study by Anne Donnellon, Joshua D. Margolis, and Amy Gallo feature expert commentary by Rakefet Russak Aminoach and Nadia Rawlinson.
A female executive considers whether a staff job is a dead end or the next step to becoming CEO. This fictional case study by Anne Donnellon, Joshua D. Margolis, and Amy Gallo feature expert commentary by Rakefet Russak Aminoach and Nadia Rawlinson.
A female executive considers whether a staff job is a dead end or the next step to becoming CEO. This fictional case study by Anne Donnellon, Joshua D. Margolis, and Amy Gallo feature expert commentary by Rakefet Russak Aminoach and Nadia Rawlinson.
Navigating the chaos that characterizes periods of rapid change demands tools that prepare an organization for an uncertain future. So says the founder of the Institute for the Future, who shares several 'tools of the trade' that she uses with clients to help them navigate uncertainty. Leaders must also know the difference between trends and fads, and weak and strong signals. Her 'tools of the trade' are invaluable because, as she notes, "Accounting data, competitor intelligence and consumer research covering near-term needs can be accurate and useful in the present, but they are often unreliable predictors of the future."
"Power is misunderstood." Thus begins the new book from management professors Tiziana Casciaro (Rotman School of Management) and Julie Battilana (Harvard). In this interview, co-author Casciaro shares insights from the book, including the fact that the most effective changemakers in an organization are not necessarily the people at the top; and that power is not intrinsically good or bad. She provides a four-element definition of power and shares key principles of the authors' framework for shifting the balance of power-a critical undertaking in a world beset by inequality. Armed with this understanding of how power works, she promises that we have a chance to live on this planet in harmony.
As businesses the world over begin to recover from the pandemic, many are hoping to see a new and better economic model emerge that is both socially inclusive and ecologically virtuous. Acclaimed management thinker Navi Radjou argues that transitioning from a deleterious economic system to a virtuous one will require something from each and every one of us: a major shift in our consciousness. After defining 'the seven chakras', he shares his new-to-the-world balanced representation of the chakras, with 'heart' (love and compassion) at the center. In the end, he makes it clear that we cannot reinvent our economy without first reinventing ourselves.
The global pandemic has been brutal to employees working in certain industries. The authors-consultants with the Boston Consulting Group and The Network-show how disruption to professional lives and incomes has had many questioning what type of work they will do in the future. Indeed, in their survey, almost seven in ten people said they are open to switching to completely different job roles. The authors show that automation, new careers that people favour and individual learning habits have implications for organizations everywhere. They outline six of them and warn that embracing these principles could become a key point of differentiation for companies seeking to attract and retain the best talent.
Innovators who experiment solely to validate their idea are making a dangerous mistake, and the authors point to the inventor of the Segway as a prime example. The purpose of experimentation should always be twofold, they say: to test an assumption and learn from the testing, so you can decide whether to persevere, pivot-or pull out. They show how 'radical innovators' use experiments to validate and investigate. Their investigation is a more open-ended form of experimentation, designed to illuminate overlooked factors or preferences. Most importantly, it leaves room for unexpected insights to emerge along the journey to product launch.
The past two decades have seen a resurgence of interest in applied Behavioural Science, with the popularization of concepts like nudging and choice architecture. The result: Policymakers across the globe have begun applying techniques from the social sciences to design programs and policies that go with the grain of human psychology. So, the authors ask, why have so few businesses-in particular, financial firms-embraced behavioural insights? They show what it looks like to put a 'behavioural lens' on a common business practice like customer segmentation; describe the critical role of context in applying behavioural insights; and share key principles for designing a compelling user experience.
In a wide-ranging interview, economist and board member (3M, Chevron) Dambisa Moyo describes how globalization has unravelled in recent years, but argues that, led by China, it must ramp back up. The economic growth it enables is far too important for countries around the world. Despite the rocky road ahead, she believes fortunes will still be made and discusses three particular opportunities for investors. Most importantly, she argues that corporations must now take on many of the challenges traditionally handled by governments, such as inequality and climate change. This is not a choice, she warns: Those who fail to do so will cease to exist.
In March 2021, Greensill Capital, the UK-based leading supply chain financing provider, with 16 offices across the world, filed for insolvency; its Germany-based bank closed by regulators. Less than two years earlier, Greensill had received a $1.5 billion investment from SoftBank's Vision Fund, valuing the company at $3.5 billion. By 2020, the company was targeting a $7 billion valuation with a potential IPO. Supply chain finance was a centuries-old method that enabled companies to better manage their working capital. Greensill had ridden the wave of technological advances to bring supply chain finance into the 21st century, but it had spectacularly failed. The repercussions of this failure touched SoftBank, Credit Suisse and the steel empire of Sanjeev Gupta, and stretched across the globe, potentially putting tens of thousands of jobs at risk. The failure also revealed one of the biggest lobbying scandals to hit the UK Government. What caused the epic fall of Greensill? And how would it affect the future of supply chain finance?
Today's organizations rely on networks of dynamic systems of "agile" teams to get work done. Teams are distributed, transient, and loosely bounded in service of responsiveness and innovation. The key to this new way of doing work is managing the networked ecosystem in which teams are embedded. But in the context of leading multiple teams with fuzzy boundaries and shifting membership, the average overwhelmed manager quickly defaults to what is nearest in urgency: managing internal team dynamics and responding to internal customer demands. Drawn from field interviews with 100 top-performing team leaders, this article presents a framework-for-action to leaders who want to engage the networked ecosystem with intention and precision, including specific tactics for identifying and influencing high-leverage stakeholders.
Non-financial environmental, ethical, social, and governance (EESG) sustainability performance is growing in importance for corporations looking to create shared value for all stakeholders. The mission of profit-with-purpose seeks to create shareholder value and fulfill environmental, social, and governance responsibilities. In pursuing this profit-with-purpose mission, management is key in creating a balance between wealth-maximization for shareholders and welfare-maximization for all stakeholders. As sustainability initiatives are being incorporated into all levels and aspects of business, the global adoption of profit-with-purpose companies is inevitable. Anyone involved with business sustainability, corporate governance, or business finance will benefit from this book as it covers all aspects of business sustainability while focusing on the idea of profit-with-purpose. Chapter 1 introduces the concept of profit-with-purpose in promoting shared value creation for all stakeholders. Business sustainability is becoming more and more important to investors and regulators worldwide, and public companies are typically expected to disclose nonfinancial aspects of their sustainability performance in EESG areas. This chapter offers an overview of best practices of sustainability in moving toward the achievement of profit-with-purpose companies. With these best practices, future trends in sustainability performance, reporting, and assurance are presented. Profit-with-purpose companies have a dual mission: make a profit while also protecting stakeholder interests through their social benefit function. This represents a transition from pure shareholder primacy to stakeholder primacy. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on business are addressed throughout the chapter.
Non-financial environmental, ethical, social, and governance (EESG) sustainability performance is growing in importance for corporations looking to create shared value for all stakeholders. The mission of profit-with-purpose seeks to create shareholder value and fulfill environmental, social, and governance responsibilities. In pursuing this profit-with-purpose mission, management is key in creating a balance between wealth-maximization for shareholders and welfare-maximization for all stakeholders. As sustainability initiatives are being incorporated into all levels and aspects of business, the global adoption of profit-with-purpose companies is inevitable. Anyone involved with business sustainability, corporate governance, or business finance will benefit from this book as it covers all aspects of business sustainability while focusing on the idea of profit-with-purpose. Chapter 2 explores the concept of shared value creation for all stakeholders-shareholders, employees, customers, suppliers, communities, society, and the environment. A brief description of how companies are moving toward shared value creation is provided. Management has the biggest role in improving sustainability performance, managing related risks, and maximizing utilization of all capitals to create shared value for all stakeholders; the role of the board of directors is also discussed. Potential EESG issues need to be identified and integrated into strategic planning and supply chain management. The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the idea of shared value and has encouraged companies to take specific EESG measures.