Disruptive Sustainability

Is disruptive behaviour one of the best ways to work Sustainability?

Yes! 
For sure, you can bet on it!

Besides the obvious questions about sustainability implementation, the rest is getting more and more clear. We have to stop worrying too much about standards and requirements, because working with sustainability can't be based on standards, it depends of each organization specific environment, it's different every time, and that's the beauty of it.

Outthink Sustainability strategy

Two articles in Fast Company online, one with the question, the other with the answer. 
Kaihan Krippendorff writes «don’t over think...outthink» in "How To Stick With It When Your Ideas Are Ahead Of Their Time", and his absolutely right! 
As many innovators learn from the beginning, it's a harsh path towards total acceptance. Forward thinking is not a very easy to understand, at least for the general audience. Sometimes is too fast, too forward, and too explicit in a certain point of view. 
So, Krippendorff starts with «ideas ahead of their time», some questions with some answers, but then we jump to "7 ways to Disrupt your Industry", from Bruce Kasanoff & Michael Hinshaw. And disruption is part of the answer, no doubt.
Now we take Sustainability, especially Sustainability strategy, looking to what’s out there and quickly realizing that the leaders are the most disrupting and forward thinking of all. The majority are still thinking, stopping, as the others outthink and acting towards their objectives.
The main idea is that we have to stop wasting some many time thinking in every angle of the questions, not giving the chance to experiment, to try to go further, acting without fear. Sustainability future passes through disrupting outthinking, as we can confirm in companies like Puma and Unilever. Focus on action, like a slogan from another fast thinking company, Nike’s “Just do it”.

Internal customers?

Clients/customers are the main target of any company. Of course, when we talk about targets it’s not everyone, clients are not everyone, generally speaking. Even thought clients could be many people, companies target certain groups, and so on, marketing talking, bla, bla, bla. 

Martin Lindstrom writes in Fast Company that «every company is struggling to nail down their core target group.» In his article «How to identify your customers, make them love you and keep them hooked», he writes about how some companies target their customers, how «brands have a tendency to try to please everyone and their dog». Strategies to please certain segments, strategies for this and for that, strategies to involve customers or clients, in different ways. 

But in my thoughts, reading about social dimensions, about sustainability strategies trying to communicate and to get to every stakeholders, including company’s workforce, it crosses my mind to look at your workforce as internal customers, to treat them as customers.
Many marketing strategies are based in customers’ motivation to spread good words about the company’s service or product; many others are based in word-of-mouth, even others in different kinds of advertising. So why can’t we thing in reaching out to internal customers with the same kind of strategies? Why can’t companies try to keep them hooked? Think how interesting it would be in identify different types or groups of internal customers, segments and other stuff.
The way to go is, as communication has an external and internal dimension, marketing can have the same also. Looking at external customers as to internal customers. Different groups, different strategies, different points of view, but in general, all are customers, all have opinions about the company, all have influence in their circles and can be a channel. 

Start by looking inside and then look outside. Treat yours first and you’ll have a bigger range of possibilities to get to more customers and better.  

Sustainability strategy: ask, talk, get involved

Reading and writing about sustainability and related subjects, one topic is getting my attention: People.
People as human resources (HR) in a company, people as community, people as the organic part of any organization. People!

I think, people should be on the core of any sustainability strategy, but they are not. When you're focusing on standards complying, people are not the core, standards are. Any strategy should be planned with everyone’s participation. Not going to people with everything sorted out, telling them what they can answer. Again, the whole process should have everyone’s participation. If not, how do you think you can have that people you didn't ask anything to get involved in a strategy that doesn't mean anything to them?

You can work involvement right by the start, getting people, your people, to be a part of the whole process. And this goes to any sustainability process, any initiative, any action.
How can you know your customer if you don't talk with him? The same question can be asked related to your people, your co-workers, as for the rest of the stakeholders.

Start asking! Start talking!

Integrating Sustainability into Business Strategy

Some time ago I read an article from Eric Lowitt that started by asking "Why you shouldn't have a Sustainability strategy?" Confused?

Lowitt explains in the article, with some examples, that if you have a sustainability strategy in your organization, by default, it’s separated from the business strategy, making it an outsider of your organization's overall. Lowitt's topic is "separate sustainability strategy" versus an "integrated sustainability and competitive strategy". 

Lowitt puts in writing some arguments about why should you, at least, think about this subject, in this point of view. Although the article focus on costs and funding, it has some good examples and tips for anyone who wants to “lose” some time reflecting about this.

The point is that you can’t work in something so deep and structural that can affect the whole business model, every single stakeholder, every client or consumer, everyone and everything, separately. Doesn’t make any sense! But it’s still common practice, business as usual.

There are 2 types (3 if you want to think the first ones are those who don’t want or don’t know Sustainability): the ones that are only interested in complying, in what’s required; and the others who are really committed to sustainability. The differences are mainly focused on practical issues, on ways to proceed. The first are characterize by the effort of complying, looking for standards to follow, fulfilling what’s required. The second are the ones that go the extra mile, that look for more, even if they have to step into grey areas, to the unknown. Not focusing on standards and requirements but on what are the connection points between sustainability and their business model.

Again, the point is that as many things in sustainability related issues, integration is a keyword. In every side of this subject the right way should be integrating sustainability into the business model, into the company’s strategy, into everything that is planned in an overall level. Sustainability strategy can’t be planned and worked as a side project inside an organization, has to be part of everything else.

Today's lack of vision?

Reading a fantastic book, from John Elkington, the 1997's "Cannibals with Forks", I saw in a page, in the 5th chapter, a definition of, in the eyes of the author, what was Revolution 1 been building in the last years. He demonstrated that there is a shift in business reality, shifting from a compliance focus towards a competition focus. This means that there was a shift from traditional ways and processes to more develop and market driven mechanisms. I'm talking about a book and a vision from 1997, and we are in 2011 having still many companies working on a traditional standard, even most of those who embraced sustainability. You certainly see it around the world, but I can talk about Portugal's reality, and that's the majority only worries about simple compliance to standards. The sustainability reports from that companies are a very good example of that.

So, what's the problem? Lack of vision? Knowledge or know-how?

Of course there's been a big progress in general in this area, but is it enough?

Another part of the book, I found a citation from Sir Ian Vallance, saying that "in today's society, companies not only need to operate in an ethical manner, but also need publicly to demonstrate they are doing so." (Elkington, 1997). This citation brigs a very important issue that many forget very easily, especially in reporting: you have to demonstrate that you're doing so. It's very different from just saying it. Today we're still worrying in preaching that good intentions are not enough, doesn't make changes, doesn't makes things better.

Sometimes this seems that we're speaking to a wall, to a crowd of stones, but the only way, the only path is forward, not to give up, and continue to work towards real sustainability, real integration, real sustainable development. 

Elkington, John. (1997). "Cannibals with Forks - The Triple Bottom Line of 315721st Century Business", Capstone

The Obvious Revolution

Orex SM

Sustainability: some pointers

Starting by understanding what's Sustainability - not so obvious as you mite think - and what's Sustainability in your business and for your business, looking into the business model, you will have a good picture. It's very simple for one side, but a whole lot of work for another. Just think you can't have success and good results without hard work.

Afterwards you'll have to have a good notion of what to do, at least in general, looking at simple steps towards your objectives. Having this kind of notion you can now start to think about about a strategy.

Strategies and strategic thinking are very important, but is essential that you realize the importance of strategy in Sustainability. Maybe you can not realize it but strategy is the core of the whole project, the core of Sustainability in your business. It´s not a closed process, it can be updated through time, and has a lot for you to think about.
Thinking about a strategy - on planning, designing and implementation - there's some tools that will be useful, like marketing, and other insights. In itself marketing has a lot of tools to work with and within Sustainability, helping achieve success and the objectives. 

The Obvious Revolution

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3 steps towards Sustainability

3 steps - not at all small - towards Sustainability

First, the planning; second the execution or the implementation; third, measuring, tracking and reporting.

Three simple steps that have a lot to say and to do. It's not easy, but it's a good start to plan your sustainability strategy following these steps. One of these steps, the third, is not really appreciated very often, but has the importance of it all. 

How can you know if what you plan worked if you don't track and measure it? And important also is to report the results and so on, because everyone has a special role to speak out, to engage and to train others in sustainability issues. 

The Obvious Revolution

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The importance of a Sustainability Strategy 2

The importance of having a strategy is fundamental in any activity, moreover in Sustainability. 
Sustainability implementation still has many obstacles, and one is the knowledge of the theme inside the organization, but outside as well. Many think that's a simple question, already in any good plan, but the reality is very different. 
We can see in many strategies, in sustainability implementation plans always with a training programme. But it's not enough to explain the theme; you have to know if people understand it, and in what level. As in any school, teachers spend a lot of time explaining the themes, the issues, but beside evaluating if students reached the expected level, they have tests to evaluate in many aspects what was understanded. With test they can evaluate students levels but also teacher's level. I'm not saying that we need to run tests in organizations after training programmes, but it's not such a bad idea.
So one of the main issues in implementation plans is that the whole message gets everywhere, and many think: “That’s obvious”. But if it is so, why most of them simple worry about passing the message, without wanting to know if it reached all the objectives. And if we think about the methods, we can realize the internal communication, the internal networks can work towards that kind of objectives. You can start the with a training programme and afterwards creating tools to let your own organization develop means to that end.
Another problem is the outside knowledge of sustainability. The external dimension or “what your clients, consumers and others know about the issue”. When you think about ways to communicate certain subjects it’s necessary to know if your target knows what are you talking about. Simple? Again, no!
Sometimes you’ll have to teach and train your audience before you start to pass the message. A little like internal dimension, the external side need somehow the same work, but with different characteristics. That’s why a real strategy, with a good timeline, can help you have an efficient communication with your audience, helping you also get to the objectives proposed.
There’s also a side problem on this kind of issues, but also a knowledge problem that puts more obstacles to Sustainability. There are more a more studies and articles saying that consumers are more open and sensitive to pay more for sustainable products and services, but giving examples like luxury consumers willing to pay more on cars and others. Reality check: this kind of piece are people with money and with a level of education, informed and a cultural level that allows them know naturally something about this issues. Unnatural and a little bit out of reality would be someone saying the lower segments of consumers would be very focus on sustainable products, willing to pay more, with a very good knowledge of issues outside of their reality.
Studies that reach obvious conclusions can have two reasons. First is the study is very simple, with no objective of reaching necessary conclusions. Second, the use of such conclusions have the simple objective to try to prove some points that otherwise would be hard to explain. Using specific segments to prove a whole range consumer reality is simple wrong.
Marketing. This needs the work of Sustainable Marketing.  

The Obvious Revolution

Orex SM

The importance of a Sustainability Strategy

Having or not having a Sustainability strategy, that is the question.
Today we can see many companies working, dealing, implementing different actions and processes around sustainability issues, but very few can say that have a real sustainability strategy.
In a simple way, a sustainability strategy is a process that involves mainly a lot of planning. But it can't be a real strategy if it isn't integrated in the company's strategy, into the whole picture. If it isn't planned following the company's strategy it's only a side project, a little more than that, maybe.
To have a sustainability strategy that works you need to have it integrated into the core business strategy, in line with the business model. You can have your company very committed with sustainability, but commitments are not enough. You'll need actions, but very good oriented actions.
We can look at this issue on two sides:
1. You'll need top management support and through this support a budget enough to implement your actions. 
2. You'll need your strategy to work, for the company's success but also for your own. 
For point 1, to develop a sustainability strategy is already hard enough for itself, but if you don't have a good and solid strategy to show your board, the C-suites, your management, it gets even harder. There are common mistakes that can be easily avoided. One that stands out is that in the beginning sustainability issues are not easily understood by the majority, so you'll have to be really good in preparing, documenting, and thinking in the whole story from the very beginning. And of course, without full understanding, don't expect to have full funds from your board.  
For point 2, following what's been explain, if you need the strategy to work, you'll have to work it hard, because it's far from simply planning a strategic plan, thinking and drawing a strategy. If you need that your sustainability activities have success, you'll need to plan well, you'll need a solid strategy. As it is hard, starting from a good plan to implement a strategy is good way to do, but it's only half of the way. Start to look for points in common between sustainability issues and strategy, looking for ways to tie it together in a natural way. Link sustainability to opportunities, to developing opportunities, opportunities to make it better. And for last find ways integrate all this into competitive advantages.
More to say, but in another post.

For all this, in my opinion, you'll need marketing. A very good marketing plan, working external dimension, but with a special focus on internal dimension.

The Obvious Revolution

Orex SM