Tuesday, January 24, 2017

More Evidence of Benefits of SDGs for Business
It seems that stories about the benefits of applying sustainable development principles to your businesses are becoming more prevalent. Truthfully, advantages of such a noteworthy combination are visible everywhere.
Major industry leaders have projected that by putting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the center of the world’s economic strategy could unleash a major change in growth and productivity, with an investment boom in sustainable infrastructure as a critical driver. However, this will not happen without a radical change in the business and investment community, in its mindset and thought leadership.
For cutting-edge businesses with leaders that comprehend the advantages of this type of thought leadership, this pro-civilization orientation could offer significant outreach opportunities.
Unilever, a diversified food manufacturer, that conducted an analysis of this evolution, also noted that radical change is imperative for the benefits to accrue to businesses and humanity.
Among the required steps is real leadershipthought leadership – for the private sector to become a trusted partner in working with government and civil society to fix the economy.
The Business & Sustainable Development Commission is convinced that the SDGs provide the private sector with a new growth strategy that opens valuable market opportunities while creating a world that is both sustainable and inclusive. And the potential rewards for doing so are significant, the commission noted.
The report reveals 60 sustainable and inclusive market “hotspots” in four key economic areas – energy, cities, food and agriculture, and health and wellbeing – that could create at least US$12 trillion, worth more than 10% of today’s GDP. These hotspots have the potential to grow two to three times faster than average GDP over the next 10–15 years.
The value and anticipated extent of growth cannot by belittled by the business world – even the skeptics.
Earlier this month I “participated” in a webinar on the sustainability-business connection called “Leading the Way to Sustainability” sponsored by the China European International Business School of Shanghai. Conducted by Prof. Lydia Price, director of the Euro-China Center on Leadership and Responsibilities, the webinar demonstrated that paying attention to sustainability is in the best of interest of businesses.
Price said insurmountable evidence shows that businesses should adapt sustainable principles now by balancing financial results with social performance. Repeating the oft-heard crucial word “leadership,” she emphasized that business leaders must champion this new arrangement.
Price indicated that sustainable businesses will succeed only with strong leadership and built-in strategies.
If businesses reject building these principles into their business plans, then consumers and other stakeholders won’t pay attention to their goods and services because sustainability is quickly enveloping all segments of the world. Indeed, she noted, consumers, patrons and average citizens have already accepted its principles. Those consumers and other stakeholders have numerous media through which they can reveal to the world that one or another business is damaging rain forests or refusing to live up to the 17 SDGs, Price warned. Their unambiguous message will be “don’t buy from XYZ Inc.”
It’s not smarter to be a sustainability follower, waiting for others to show the way, she counseled, it’s better to be a leader and take advantage of the opportunities.
“Sustainability investments yield positive financial returns and they reap large rewards,” Price said.
She urged business leaders to strategically align sustainability with their business plans and fully embed it in the company’s strategies, processes and practices.
“Sustainability can create value by reducing costs, growing margins and building business,” Price elaborated.
Sustainability in a business environment works best when it flows in both directions from the top and bottom, she said, and also when management rewards employees for following through with such policies.
Price’s observations tended to focus on big businesses so I asked her about small businesses. Can entrepreneurs also benefit from embracing sustainability? She concurred. Large and small businesses, in concert with civil society, can certainly benefit from this global tidal wave.
However, they should tweak their approaches.
Price said when she speaks with NGOs, she suggests that they try to align their work and their language with a simpler framework so that business leaders can better understand their priorities and needs.
“I often find that NGOs use legal or environmental language that executives may find difficult to follow. This is one reason why sustainability is delegated to specialist departments in large organizations, which inhibits the value to business. If NGOs and large companies spoke the same language, I think we would have more productive collaborations,” she opined.
Regarding business risks and opportunities, Price said it is particularly relevant for entrepreneurs and small businesses to think about sustainable ways of leveraging resources or tapping markets.
“The notion of a ‘circular economy’ is that our current industrial systems generate ‘waste products’ with productive value that can be exploited. I mentioned a technology startup that is trying to make cement using readily available carbon as an example. Similarly, many social entrepreneurs look for ways to offer productive employment to special needs workers, who are undervalued in today’s economy.  To summarize, a ‘no waste’ sustainable economy would generate value from these neglected resources,” Price observed alluding to a few of the 17 SDGs. 
“Entrepreneurs can also look for ways to tap underserved markets with new and better goods and services. Natural food and cosmetics companies (e.g., Brazil’s Natura), for example, are experiencing high growth as buyers seek healthy lifestyles.”
In other words, sustainability is not merely a theoretical concept with limited applications in the real world but one that can provide all businesses and civil society with opportunities that will benefit them as well as civilization.
By hitching your wagon to the sustainable development goals, your businesses and NGOs will garner promotional mileage. Tell the world about it. That will certainly boost your outreach. As I have written in the past, use all forms of social media, Twitter, Facebook, etc., to promote your decision and projects. Follow the “sustainable,” “SDG” and “Agenda2030” communities with appropriate hashtags, join existing conservations and initiate your own. Share your point of view by reaching out to likeminded stakeholders, explain your success, build followers, think outside the box, and become thought leaders about sustainability and business.
Tell your local government officials and other stakeholders about this important issue. Take photographs of your meetings and post them on Facebook and other sites. Traditional media outreach with press releases is also helpful in this effort because it can neatly tie all traditional and cyber efforts into an understandable package that talks about your business.
Combing sustainability and business is fast becoming a vital business activity. NGOs can play an important role be explaining the principles to entrepreneurs and developing a common language.
Send your examples
Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business and let me know your impressions. If you have examples of how you used social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.
I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:
http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/              
If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:
http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

Monday, January 16, 2017

Boost Your Outreach by Partnering
Partnering, networking or outreaching is a generally accepted, effective way to boost your visibility in the marketplace or among your peers and stakeholders. It also increases your chances of succeeding.
By reaching out to the world around you, you create relationships that will contribute to your success now and in the future. Relationships are the building blocks for profitable business activities as well as successful civic happenings. Whether you want to organize a multicultural neighborhood volleyball game, get rid of unfair housing practices in your town, mobilize to protect the environment, or create a local business council, you will need to form many solid relationships.
Why? Because the relationships we form with the communities we serve, colleagues in business, our co-workers and staff members, and even our adversaries and competitors are the means for achieving our goals. That is the raison d’etre of trade or industry organizations: like-minded companies getting together to help one another by increasing knowledge and boosting business rather than fixing prices and stifling commerce.
A rising tide lifts all ships – and a combined effort benefits near and distant participants. When more people put their shoulders to the wheel, the task becomes easier.
People and businesses don't work in isolation: we need to be working together. Our combined relationships form the foundation of an organized effort for change or improvement. Everyone needs people to contribute ideas, take a stand, and get the job done.
We need relationships in order to win allies to our cause. We need to build relationships through which people know and trust us in order to get support from people outside our organizations.
Business partnerships assume a variety of forms. They may be long-term formal, legal commitments or simple short-term ventures to test a market concept. Civil society may form partnerships to promote the Sustainable Development Goals in the local community or champion a human rights issue. Sometimes the reason for seeking a partner is capital, sometimes for expertise and knowledge, sometimes for connections and networking.
Bringing out and taking advantage of the strengths of the individuals or business entities within the partnership adds to the motivation, energy and odds of long-term success. In numbers there is strength.
Partnerships offer a wealth of opportunities for growth – when they occur between the right businesses, organizations or individuals. To succeed, partnerships require more than complementary goals and audiences. Partnerships thrive when their partnership managers themselves get along.
When should you begin? It's better to build relationships and partnerships before you need them or before a conflict arises. However, you can also form relationships during a crisis, and very often a crisis can bring people together. In business, the onset of unfair competition or evidence of graft can bring together local businesses that are competitors. While it may seem unusual, make the most of your organization’s crises. You can build relationships when you are in need because people often want to help.

Building relationships is the groundwork that must be laid before anything else gets done on a project. The bigger the project, the more partnerships you will usually need as a foundation.
Each person or entity in the partnership has individual reasons for participating. Because partners join forces for an assortment of reasons and expectations, sometimes the strengths of each individual may be overlooked. The most obvious strengths will probably be recognized; however, underlying strengths when brought out can often make a big difference in long-term motivation, commitment and success.
It is not beyond the realm of possibilities that your business or NGO may need to build partnerships with people of different cultural backgrounds than your own. Don’t shy away from the opportunities. Approach them respectfully by learning about the person’s culture. Your efforts will go a long way in showing that you care enough to find out about the reality of another person’s life.
Put yourself at the center of another person’s culture and even try to attend their cultural events where you are the minority. If you are willing to take risks by putting yourself in a situation in which you might feel uncomfortable, people will be more inclined to want to get to know you.
If necessary, take a stand against the person's oppression. Actions speak louder than words. People who experience oppression need allies to speak out against injustice. Strong relationships are forged when people act courageously on behalf of each other.
As you build partnerships, you will see that you may have to go beyond your normal terrain. Your neighborhood then becomes the globe – a concept that is enhanced thanks to the Internet. Your message finds resonance around the world. Think global, act local now has a mirror application with think local, act global. Your small business and civic organization can reach similar businesses and groups around the world through partnerships.
According to New Geography, “Think globally, act locally” as well as “Think locally, act globally” are slogans that encourage people to think about the global ramifications of their actions while making an effort to improve things locally. 
In ecological terms, the phrase recognizes the fact that environmental protection is a global problem, but one that average citizens can address by making efforts first in their local communities. Beyond its sustainability implications, the phrase has also been adopted by the business world, and more recently by the Millennials. New Geography points out that the phrase exemplifies that generation’s outlook towards implementing societal changes on a direct, local level and its belief in changing the world one community at a time.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #17 addresses the point of partnerships by urging stakeholders to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.
For instance, thinking and acting locally, the problem of trash in landfills is an enormous one from a global standpoint, and a single person might feel powerless to address the issue. But by making small changes in one’s own life, such as reducing waste and increasing recycling efforts, an individual or group can do his or her part to solve the problem. By mobilizing community groups and local businesses to pool their efforts on a local level, the effects are magnified.
Sustainable development is one avenue for effective formation of horizontal and vertical partnerships that benefit not only direct participants but collateral ones as well.
Now you understand the benefits of building partnerships. But once you decide to reach out and establish them, tell the world about it especially if you’re aligning your efforts with SDG #17. That will certainly add to the mileage that you’ll gain. As I have written in the past, use all forms of social media, Twitter, Facebook, etc., to promote your decision and projects. Follow the “sustainable” or “SDG” community with appropriate hashtags about partnerships, join existing conservations and initiate your own. Share your point of view about reaching out to like-minded stakeholders, explain your success, build followers and become a thought leader about building partnerships.
Tell your local government officials, with which you should create partnerships, and other stakeholders about your plans. Take photographs and post them on Facebook and other sites. Traditional media outreach with press releases is also helpful in this effort because it can neatly tie all traditional and cyber efforts into an understandable package that talks about your business.
Building partnerships is a natural activity for small business and NGO projects.
Send your examples
Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business with partnerships and let me know your impressions. If you have examples of how you used social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.
I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:
http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Sustainability is Good for Your Outreach
It’s virtually self-evident that sustainability is beneficial for civilization today and tomorrow. Going green, protecting the environment, and maintaining the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals or 2030 Agenda will certainly improve our lives and the lives of our descendants.
In case you’re not up on your sustainable parlance, 2030 Agenda was the desired shorthand version of the mission statement because it announced that the 17 goals should be attained by the year 2030.
But if universal altruism doesn’t impress you as an entrepreneur who is tasked with building business every day then you’ll be pleased to know that you can combine both vital matters. You can boost your outreach, build sales, be sustainable and successful at the same time because sustainability is good for your business.
From the 50,000-foot level: “Sustainability, the triple bottom line of economic profitability, respect for the environment and social responsibility: these are the new buzzwords of many a corporate annual report. Global companies everywhere are falling over themselves to declare their adherence to the principles of sustainable development,” observed Chris Boyd, senior vice-president, environment and public affairs, at manufacturer Lafarge, in an online article.
In other words, Boyd noted that “sustainability is largely a question of good business.” He assured his fellow business leaders that there is no fundamental contradiction between concern for the environment or social responsibility and the profit motive that has been the mainstay of the capitalist world.
Greed is still good for you,” he stated tongue in cheek.
As a matter of fact, Boyd said it is good for your business to act in a more sustainable way, even where the market does not yet provide the appropriate signals.
On the social or community side, he said concern for sustainability is grounded in good business reasons. For example, his company’s cement business would have faced administrative difficulties without the support and understanding of local communities that are concerned with environmentally damaging ventures.
“Acting in a sustainable way can make firms more competitive, more resilient to shocks, nimbler in a fast-changing world, more unified in purpose, more likely to attract and hold customers and the best employees, and more at ease with regulators and financial markets,” he explained.
Wall Street is also taking notice of the positive effects of combining business and sustainability. Boyd explained that between January 1, 1999, and June 30, 2000, the Dow Jones Sustainability Group World Index–composed of sustainability-driven companies including Lafarge–outperformed the Dow Jones Global World Index by 127 basis point in US dollar terms. The index consists of the top 10% of companies seen as leaders in sustainable development. Their value advantage held in both bull and bear markets.
According to the website Robecosam.com, 1,500 investors representing more than $60 trillion in assets under management have committed to integrating sustainability into their investment decisions.
Financial investment analysts have determined that sustainability challenges are in fact shaping companies’ competitive landscape, and firms that take the lead in seizing these opportunities and managing risks associated with these challenges are best-positioned to outperform their peers
At the ground level, the same interest in sustainability can be seen with retailers on Main Street, USA.
A recent Nielsen global online study found that the tony Millennials continue to be most willing to pay extra for sustainable offerings—almost three-out-of-four respondents in the latest findings, up from approximately half in 2014.
Furthermore, the increase in the percentage of respondents aged 15 - 20, known as Generation Z, who are willing to pay more for products and services that come from companies that are committed to positive social and environmental impact was also strong—up from 55% in 2014 to 72% in 2015.
“Brands that establish a reputation for environmental stewardship among today’s youngest consumers have an opportunity to not only grow market share but build loyalty among the power-spending Millennials of tomorrow, too,” observed Grace Farraj, senior vice-president, Public Development & Sustainability, for Nielsen.
But don’t think that younger consumers are the only ones favoring sustainability. Don’t overlook gray-haired Baby Boomers in the quest for new business. Fifty-one percent of Boomers (aged 50-64) surveyed are willing to pay extra, an increase of seven percentage points since last year. This segment will remain a substantial and viable market in the coming decade for select products and services from sustainable brands.
Beyond sales opportunities, sustainable businesses are also more likely to attract good, young talent to their workforce. Reportedly, the highly educated, mobile and tech-savvy age group that falls within the demographic band known as Generation Y wants a workplace that’s like them: urban, flexible, collaborative, environmentally sensitive and unconventional. Incidentally, lifestyle is a sustainable consideration.
OK, so now you see the goal line of this project. But don’t stop planning. Once you decide to become a sustainable business, tell the world about it. As I have written in the past, use all forms of social media, Twitter, Facebook, etc., to promote your decision and projects. Follow the “sustainable” community with appropriate hashtags, join existing conservations and initiate your own. Share your point of view, explain your success, build followers and become a thought leader in the growing field of sustainable businessmen and women.
Tell your local government officials and other stakeholders about your plans. Take photographs and post them on Facebook and other sites. Traditional media outreach with press releases is also helpful in this effort because it can neatly tie all traditional and cyber efforts into an understandable package that talks about your business.
You should also be aware that civil society, which is already active in this mission, can be involved in your business as well.
Many businesses wrongly think of NGOs as adversaries and nuisances, and are quite content if they are not approached by them. Remember the scene from “A Christmas Carol” when Scrooge is approached by fundraisers? Not reaching out to NGOs is a missed opportunity to benefit from their expertise in material sourcing, water treatment and a host of other issues. Civil society can serve as partners in providing you with insights about sustainability and advancing your businesses’ sustainability efforts.
Send your examples
Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business with sustainable projects and let me know your impressions. If you have examples of how you used social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.
I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:
http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/