If Progress Is This Way, Where Is Your Business – In the Vanguard, Main-Guard, or Rearguard?

Earlier this month, Unilever announced that 70% of its turnover growth now comes from an increasing stable of brands that have successfully defined or redefined their purpose and aligned themselves with the core Sustainable Living Plan (USLP). That’s up 10% on the previous year and comes hand-in-hand with what FT commentator Matthew Vincent described as a positive quarterly result. ‘Positive’ may not excite the short-term brigade, but if your core purpose is to be a force for good that benefits all stakeholders (human and non-human), it’s a great result.

Holding up Unilever as the pioneer of a new way to do business not only irks the one-eyed profiters. It also rubs up those on the other side of the fence, the social activists. There are plenty of others in the vanguard, they say. But actually, there aren’t. Very few businesses of any scale have completely redefined their core purpose in the way Unilever has done; most in the vanguard were conceived to do good in the first instance. But it’s a moot point anyway.

A Tipping Point Approaches

Talk to enough people with an interest in the future of humanity and the role of business, like I do, and you will quickly come to the conclusion that a tipping point is fast approaching. At long last, it seems the vanguard is being joined by the forward elements of the main-guard (or mainstream, if you like).

Leading the way are businesses that have concluded that the pioneers are on the right track. Spurred on by clear warnings from financiers about how investment decisions will be reached in the future (see Larry Fink’s annual letter to CEOs), these forward-thinking businesses have determined that doing good is not only good for business but may be the only way of being in business in the future. These businesses also have a clear understanding that doing a bit more CSR or Shared Value work on the side while delivering trendy purpose statements won’t wash.

Beyond the ‘Why’ – Moving to the ‘How’

These businesses have gone beyond the ‘why’ and are getting on with the ‘how’. They are determined to drive change, and they are determined to do it in a way that sticks. That means:

  • Collaboration
  • Employing practical, proven approaches and tools that engage people
  • Putting ‘more meaningful growth’ at the core of their businesses

Those that continue denying, delaying, or attempting to disrupt the march of progress run the risk of being left in the rearguard. So where is your business?

Assess Your Business

Judge for yourself. Here are six quick questions to help you assess your position:

  1. Do your business leaders support the idea that business should be a force for good?
  2. To what degree are your products and services adapting and changing to meet fast-changing social expectations?
  3. Is your business admired by society for what it does?
  4. Is there a gap between what your business is saying and what it’s actually doing?
  5. Do you think fast-changing customer, employee, and investor expectations are putting your business at risk?
  6. Is your business organized around a single, compelling, relevant, and sustainable idea that will help ensure its future success?

Time for Change?

Neil Gaught is the author of CORE: How a Single Organizing Idea Can Change Business for Good, published by Routledge. CORE is available at Amazon and other stores in paperback, audio, and Kindle.

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