21st Century Sustainability

Sustainability is a word that vibrates with multiple meaning. There are some who insist it is code for a green company to rip away our comfortable lives and force us into granola-eating consumers. For others it means eliminating waste from the way we make and consume things, reduce toxic pollution, wear clothes made of recycled plastic and drive hybrid cars. But increasingly it means something far more valuable to a new emerging group of business leaders, economists and far-sighted consumers. For them sustainability means a whole new intention of business leadership. When leaders decide they are going to harness the imagination of all their stakeholders to create as much value as they can, the world changes. It’s about time.

ADP Founder, Will Marre, Interviewed in Forbes about Careers

I think a lot of us have the wrong idea of what it takes to make a big impact on the world.  We don’t have to relinquish all material belongings, retreat to Africa, and hold crying babies to make a difference.  Those that are making the greatest impact are making money at the same time.  That’s right.  They’re making money by saving the world.  It’s actually the strategic thing to do.  It makes solutions to our problems sustainable and scaleable.  It helps us solve big problems faster.  I call it socially strategic enterprise.  What a great idea.

I was recently interviewed for the Forbes magazine article, “Get Paid to Be a Do-Gooder.”

*Taken from Forbes SLIDE SHOW

The article discusses the growing trend of people looking for careers that benefit humanity and the environment.  These opportunities are indeed endless.  As I suggested to Forbes, social entrepreneurship is a vastly growing field where entrepreneurs base their business on offering products or services that directly benefit society.  Great examples are the South African Roundabout that provides rural areas with water pumps driven by a human-powered merry-go-round mechanism and makes money selling advertisements on its water towers.

Also, the Grameen Bank, who generates a strong profit giving microloans to the poor and has created a worldwide movement toward self-reliance.

Of course you don’t have to be an entrepreneur to have a fulfilling, socially responsible career.  There are huge opportunities right now in the non-profit sector for strong business-minded individuals as non-profits are trying to come up with strategies to create sustainable income from either products or services to support their mission. What’s needed are people who are skilled in marketing, web development, IT, SEO, finance, etc.

Non-profits are not in short supply of people who want to go to Africa and hold babies, console mothers, and improve orphanages.  What they are in short supply of are people who can create an infrastructure to scale up systematic solutions and create sustainable income strains.

And finally, if you’re not in a position in which you can start a socially strategic enterprise or work for a non-profit, transform your current job into one that brings you meaning and satisfaction. Your opportunity is to just start seeing your current job as a means to reduce waste, promote responsibility, help your community or innovate new, sustainable value.

Yes, I know, the job market is tough right now, but this unemployment crisis has brought each of us to a moment of truth. We can either use it as an excuse to make our work meaningless, merely a paycheck, or we can see it as an opportunity to make our work count for something bigger than ourselves.

As I tell audiences around the world, it’s an exciting time to be alive.  We can save the world and make a sustainable living doing it.  We can have a fulfilling career and make a difference.  Our difference.  Just start.

Money Madness and Socially Responsible Leadership

Perhaps the most tragic failure of a human being is to live our life without learning its most important lesson.  It is our greatest opportunity for happiness.  It’s simple.  Life’s purpose is more than our self-interest.  Much more.  I am continually shocked by the alarming display of leadership failure that parades through our media daily.  Mostly this failure is rooted in the singular pursuit of self-interest, which, like a coiled snake biting itself, dies from its own toxicity.

Our government, which like all governments, struggles to effectively regulate the behavior of powerful, selfish economic interests is seemingly overwhelmed by its own corruption.  Our latest defense budget is weighted down with billions of dollars of earmarks for weapons and projects not wanted by our own military.  We fund these special interest contracts because companies donate millions to targeted senators and congressmen willing to sell their power for campaign contributions.  Many of these lawmakers who enthusiastically insist we waste billions on weapons that will never work are the same ones who violently argue we can’t afford health care reform.  This is failure of leadership.  It’s money madness.  Imagine our society if we exercised self-control instead of needing the bumbling bureaucracy of regulatory control. Regulations are awkward, slow things down and always lead to unintended consequences.  The only thing worse is no regulations, which gives us products that kill us, bankrupt us and poison our future.  We need wise regulation because we are selfish.  What if we weren’t?

Today we have Wall Street whose leaders are wrestling with Washington to avoid any meaningful regulation while they pay themselves billions in bonuses for catastrophic failure.  Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, both huge beneficiaries of taxpayer bailouts, have paid 1434 individuals over $1 million in bonuses in 2008 (USA Today).  This is for performance during the meltdown!  It’s bewildering.   These are people who lead an industry that has caused immense suffering to millions worldwide.  Over 6 million of us have lost our jobs in the past two years due mostly to wildly irresponsible leadership of our financial system.  Meanwhile, responsible bankers who haven’t participated in the financial madness get punished for the sins of the selfish.  Something very basic is wrong.  It’s madness driven by money.

Our health care system needs radical surgery because we are currently ranked 37th in the world in health care effectiveness as measured by money spent for results.  The primary reason for our breakdown is that too many pieces of our health care system are dominated by profit-first motives.  Should health care really be viewed as an “industry” to get rich on?  Are there too many pigs at the trough?  Meanwhile those health care leaders who are caregivers and most compassionate and effective get squashed in the gears of the machine of selfishness.  Something very basic is wrong.  It’s money blindness.

Then there is us.  As a nation we nearly consume 40 percent more per person than our closest runner-up, Great Britain.  Yet, we spend more money on anti-depressants, treating stress disorders, have the highest suicide rate and highest divorce rate of any developed country.  We don’t have to wonder why.  Did you see the study released this week at the American Society Association?  After studying 136,000 people in 132 countries, it concludes that less money can make life simpler and easier to enjoy (See Money Affects Life Satisfaction, but not Day-to-Day Happiness).  Money doesn’t buy happiness.  Happiness, contentment, life satisfaction, all those things we long for are primarily driven by the quality of our personal relationships and the enriching experiences we have.  I think we knew that.  Maybe we just forgot.

Of course not having enough money to pay our bills causes unhappiness, stress and relationship problems.  You see, money as a psychological motivator is known as a “dissatisfier.”  Not having enough causes dissatisfaction but having much more than enough doesn’t cause higher satisfaction.  What drives our higher satisfactions?  Meaning and love.  And the great source of human meaning is serving others.  Put another way, meaning is love, and love is meaningful.  That’s not new news; that’s persistent wisdom of humanity recorded through history.  Selfishness, self-interest, self-glorification is self-inflicted pain.  Love, service, relationships are joy.  We all know this.  When we forget it, most often we have been blinded by money.

What’s the best thing we can do?  First, put down our blackberries and iphones, push away from whatever screen we’re watching and experience the feelings of love with those who love you.  Second, view money like the weather.  Sometimes it will be sunny, sometimes stormy.  Sometimes we’ll have money, sometimes we won’t.  Don’t fret about what you can’t control but take charge of everything you can.  Don’t waste money on too many things.  And don’t sell your peace of mind for debt.  Third, demand that leaders of all our institutions act on principles beyond their self-interest.  The world’s power is shifting to the power of consumers, employees and voters.  Every choice we make can be an act of leadership.  An act of socially responsible leadership.  It’s time to cure money-madness and sharpen our vision to see that things really matter.

What Comes Around Goes Around

One of my husband’s favorite television shows is My Name is Earl.  Earl’s new found belief in karma is the backdrop of the show in which Earl tries to set right everything bad he’s done in hopes that by doing good, good will come to him.  While the show is fun and entertaining, I think it makes a good point.  Call it whatever you want—karma, the spirit of the universe, God— I have to agree with Earl.  When we honestly do as much good as we can, it not only benefits those we serve, but the good comes back to us ten fold.  And this rings true in every aspect of our lives, both personally and in business.

So this brings me to my question, why isn’t every company in the world grabbing social responsibility by the horns and incorporating it into their core business model? In Don’t Underestimate Power of Social Responsibility Lisa Hickey asserts that the common phrase, “what goes around comes around” is especially true in business.  She states, “There is a perfect correlation between socially responsible companies and economically viable companies.”

In The Business Benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility several benefits to business are discussed such as building a reputation as a responsible business sets you apart, customers are rewarding responsible companies, and reducing waste and emissions saves money.  Additional benefits addressed in the article are as follows:
•    A good reputation makes it easier to recruit employees.
•    Employees stay longer, reducing the costs and disruption of recruitment and retraining.
•    Employees are better motivated and more productive.
•    CSR helps ensure you comply with regulatory requirements.
•    Activities such as involvement with the local community are ideal opportunities to generate positive press coverage.
•    Good relationships with local authorities make doing business easier.
•    Understanding the wider impact of your business can help you think up profitable new products and services.
•    CSR can make you more competitive and reduces the risk of sudden damage to your reputation (and sales). Investors recognize this and are more willing to finance you.

Corporate Social Responsibility also describes six driving factors for CSR: (1) the shrinking role of government, (2) demands for greater disclosure, (3) increased customer interest, (4) growing investor pressure, (5) competitive labor markets, and (6) supplier relations.

Will Marré, acclaimed CSR speaker and advocate, is a passionate voice for the benefits of social responsibility.  In Corporate Social Responsibility and ThoughtRocket.com he’s quoted, “When you combine the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit, the new sources of value and points of differentiation you uncover yields topline growth, fiercely loyal customers, and committed internal and external talent.”  Marré takes it a step further asserting that when CSR is incorporated into the business model it creates the greatest economic opportunity in the history of the world.   He states in Corporate Social Responsibility Gains a Daily Voice on the Web,
“Every problem is an opportunity. In the next decades we will have to re-invent every product we use to be ecologically friendly, energy efficient and recyclable. Just the opportunity to change all the light bulbs in the world has a mind-boggling upside.  The opportunities to lift billions of people from poverty, educate billions to live in the 21st century and unlock the keys to sustainable living and sustainable relationships are endless.”

So, I return to my question: Why isn’t every company in the world embracing their social responsibilities when there is nothing to lose and everything to gain?  Doing good is a virtuous cycle that positively influences everyone and everything it touches.  So let’s take our cues from Earl, and even if our reason for doing good is so that good will come to us, we’ll make the world a better place.

- Jeannie Foy, ThoughtRocket Editor

Socially Responsible Leadership

It takes strong leaders to transform business and change the world.  But it can be done…and must.

In Five Features of Great Socially Responsible Leadership Mallen Baker gives a great list of strong socially responsible leadership qualities.
1) Being prepared to challenge the logic of your industry.
2) Doing something because it is the right thing to do, and then working out how to make it pay.
3) Understanding that the leaders sets incentives – and sometimes the bottom line is the wrong incentive.
4) Understanding when to follow the rules, and when to use common sense in the face of unintended outcomes.
5) Knowing that just because people around you see you as a leader, it doesn’t mean you’re a good one.

Will Marré also asserts a socially responsible leadership model in his recent article, CSR and the Four Ideals of Socially Responsible Leadership, he calls REALeadership.  The model is based on four principles:
R—Relevant.   A leader’s impact is long.  Their decisions weigh more than others.  So they must be wise enough to constantly see the big picture, to carefully consider the impact of their decisions on employees, customers, suppliers, the environment, the community, and the generations of unborn.
E—Ethical.  To be ethical is to be moral.  The moral standard is do as much good as you can.  Create the Greatest Total Value you can.  For everyone, all the time.  Why else lead?
A—Abundance. Sustainable Abundance requires more than innovation.  It demands invention.  It requires creating something with unique value that genuinely benefits humanity and heals the environment.
L—Legacy. A leader’s legacy is his or her impact on the future.  The world needs saving.  We need new solutions we can implement as fast as possible.

Leadership, especially in today’s world climate, is indeed a great responsibility, but it’s also a great opportunity to do something really amazing.  I think Marré says it best in the conclusion of his article, “If you aren’t going to save the world then get out of the way and make room for someone who is.” Are you up to the challenge?

Corporate Social Opportunity Rules

I’m always talking about changing the view of corporate social responsibility into corporate social opportunity.  How if done right, companies don’t have to choose between profits, people, and the planet.  This is what I mean.

I was reading an interesting article today of an interview with Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor Business Administration, Harvard Business School. She was asked a very good question, “Can one realistically expect values to prevail over profits?”  She answered, “It does not have to be principles over profits. In fact, principles often get you profits.”  She goes on to give an example of Banco Real, a bank in Brazil that has environmental and social responsibility criteria on loan applications.  By so doing, the bank has customers coming back to them with a plea to help them comply and also new customers who, because of this standard, won’t put their money anywhere else.

Another example Kanter cites is P&G and their water purifier called PuR.  At first, the company couldn’t make a profit out of it and many wanted to stop the project.  But instead the company embraced the product’s importance for people who don’t live near clean drinking water and created a non-profit organization to distribute it.  It turns out that after the tsunami, the demand skyrocketed so they not only recovered the cost but even more value came from employee commitment, demonstrating their values to customers, etc.

These two examples are proof that if we truly embrace our social responsibilities and transform them into social opportunities, the rewards will be endless.  The triple bottom line is not too idealistic…it works.

CSR and the 4 Ideals of Socially Responsible Leadership

Corporate Social Responsibility is rapidly transforming into Corporate Social Opportunity.  And it’s about time.  Socially responsible leaders look for opportunity in a time of crisis, and if they look in the right places, opportunity is all around.

The idea that it is the responsibility of leadership to come up with new ways to create value so good, hard working people can keep working takes a good dose of both courage and creativity, but that’s what Corporate Social Responsibility is all about.  In a time of hunkering down, strong leaders look for ways to expand.  How?  By looking for ways to benefit humanity and heal the environment.  Wait a minute isn’t that what we don’t have money to do?  Aren’t we going to have to wait until good times roll to spend our extra money on doing good?  Not at all.  Just look at the Grameen Bank, a bank that invented micro credit for the world’s poorest people and makes money by loaning to sub, sub, sub, prime borrowers yet has 50 million customers and a 96% repayment record.

If we are just willing to lift our heads above the herd there is a path to sustainable abundance. When the whole world is thinking small it’s time to think big.  Our path to re-prosperity is through saving the world and through socially responsible leadership.  We cannot continue to compete for scarce resources using wasteful, broken business practices that turn our planet into money.  Rather, it’s time to turn ideas into value.  For that we need a radically new leadership model based on the four ideals of socially responsible leadership—what I call the REAL Leadership model.

The first ideal of socially responsible leadership is to be Relevant. A leader’s impact is long.  Their decisions weigh more than others.  So they must be wise enough to constantly see the big picture, to carefully consider the impact of their decisions on employees, customers, suppliers, the environment, the community, and the generations of unborn.

The second ideal of socially responsible leadership is to be Ethical. To be ethical is to be moral.  The moral standard is do as much good as you can.  Create the Greatest Total Value you can.  For everyone, all the time.  Why else lead?

The third ideal of socially responsible leadership is to create sustainable Abundance.  Sustainable Abundance requires more than innovation.  It demands invention.  It requires creating something with unique value  that genuinely benefits humanity and heals the environment.

The fourth ideal of socially responsible leadership is to create a Legacy.   A leader’s legacy is his or her impact on the future.  The world needs saving.  We need new solutions we can implement as fast as possible.

That’s what social responsibility is all about.  If you aren’t going to save the world then get out of the way and make room for someone who is.