Rethink Sustainable Business (1 of 7) In A Nutshell
Warm welcome my friend to this seven-part series, where we answer:
How can businesses accelerate their profits by building a better world?
Let’s start by looking at the condensed answer.
Rethink sustainable business — in a nutshell
1. The $12 trillion opportunity
64 of 100 say that a company’s primary purpose should be making the world better. Also, global trends, like digitalization, are nudging companies to act differently. Not following these shifts can result in irrelevance. In 2027, 75% of the companies quoted on the S&P 500 in 2019 will likely have disappeared.
But, every issue is a business opportunity in disguise. Companies aligning with global trends are 4 to 8 times more likely to rise to the economic profit performance top. And, by going sustainable, companies can gain from $12 trillion of annual revenue opportunities. In fact, sustainable companies are generating annual shareholder returns of 30–80%.
2. The AHA model
To successfully seize these new markets and higher margins, leaders are helped to shift their thinking through the AHA model.
The model covers 21st century ways of thinking about platforms (purpose, leadership, and talent), enablers (value proposition, strategy, and business model), and accelerators (technology, metrics, and scaled co-creation). What it boils down to is to go beyond business-as-usual (improve) and net-zero sustainability (innovate) to deliver net-positive value at scale (impact); roughly meaning:
Leaving everyone and everything better off.
The higher shareholder returns is the effect the net-positive value provided. To do this, expand the scope. Look far beyond existing systems and solutions.
3. The ACT process
To expand the scope of only reducing risks, costs, and negative impacts, also increase opportunities by providing solutions for net-positive impact. Do that by leveraging the ACT process, which in the first two steps looks at the company capacity, solution potential, and value propositions; all the way from business-as-usual to fundamentally rethinking solutions to core customer needs aligned with the Global Goals for sustainability.
In the final step, assess these value propositions, set an ambition, and agree on the strategy for implementation and simple next day actions.
The expedition
Having covered the nutshell part of the series, in the next part we’ll cover chapter 1 (opportunities, the future, and reasons to think in new ways) and kick off chapter 2 (AHA model and its platforms). See you in the next one.
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