25 Years Ago I Coined the Phrase “Triple Bottom Line.” Here’s Why It’s Time to Rethink It.

My piece with this title, published by Harvard Business Review on 28 June, triggered something of a firestorm. It began innocently enough:

How often are management concepts subjected to recalls by the people who invented them? It is hard to think of a single case.

If an industrial product like a car fails the manufacturer pulls it back, tests it and, if necessary, re-equips it. In case manufacturers grow careless, governments run periodic road safety tests. Management concepts, by contrast, operate in poorly regulated environments where failures are often brushed under boardroom or faculty carpets. Yet poor management systems can jeopardize lives in the air, at sea, on roads or in hospitals. They can also put entire businesses and sectors at risk.

With this in mind, I’m volunteering to carry out a management concept recall: with 2019 marking the 25th anniversary of the “triple bottom line,” a term I coined in 1994, I propose a strategic recall to do some fine tuning.

To read more in the Harvard Business Review, click here.

The triple bottom line, now central to the operations of over 2,500 B Corps, is being subjected to a product recall from September.

And to get a gist of the tsunami of comments on the HBR piece, take a look at this follow-up blog published by GreenBiz. Here are the opening paragraphs of that:

Perhaps you’re too young to recall — or to have read — Robert Pirsig’s 1974 book, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” It had quite an impact on me at the time. One key line: “The truth knocks on the door and you say, ‘Go away, I’m looking for the truth,’ and so it goes away. Puzzling.”

In the Tomorrow’s Capitalism Inquiry we will launch in the fall, our aim is to solve the puzzle of how business and financial markets can best address multiple capitals and future forms of value. We will wire the door for sound — and encourage all sorts of people to knock.

Take this as your invitation to take part in that inquiry, slated to run for a full year. The idea is to use crowd sourcing to critically review progress — or the lack of it — with the Triple Bottom Line.