OWP 2022: Leading For the Future

→Execution

DRIVING CHANGE: HOW TO CHAMPION SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS TRANSFORMATIONS

How to implement sustainable changes in your business through a set of concrete actions.

While businesses are often denounced as being part of the sustainability problem, they can be part of the solution by using their size and scale to achieve a positive impact. Considering the speed of change, there is a lot of confusion amongst business leaders regarding sustainability – yet, at the same time, it’s now top of corporate agendas, or at least a key strategic initiative for most companies. While many companies have understood the need to act, very few have figured out how to do so.

Instead of having a separate sustainability strategy, best cases show that aligning sustainability with the core strategy and operations is the path to success. Companies need to determine their most material issues and set specific actionable KPIs to address these. This requires changing the framework conditions for success, such as setting longer time frames (three to five years instead of just one year) in order to achieve sustainability goals. Incentives and compensation structures also need to be aligned.

ALIGNMENT IS KEY There are three lenses to apply around sustainability integration: strategy, operations, and culture. While many companies manage to integrate sustainability into their strategy, operations, and corporate identity, their company culture is often neglected. Integrating sustainability into the culture of the organization is a prerequisite for success.

JULIA BINDER Professor of Sustainable Innovation and Business Transformation at IMD

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