Corporate Sustainability: CEO Viewpoint

"What's happened across the industrialized world is the governments are feeling poor these days," says David Victor at the University of California, San Diego. "So they are a lot less willing to put money into loan guarantees, production tax credits and feed-in tariffs and other policies that have historically been the big drivers of very low-emission technologies like nuclear and wind." 1 That mindset translates to business organizations as well. It seems the eyes of CEOs sometimes glaze over at that thought of changing their business to be more green. The problem with the thought boils down to prioritizing its strategic importance in the grand scheme of things, especially with daily pressing issues needing immediate attention and a slowly recovering economy that keeps CEOs feeling skittish. Perhaps there is a lack of understanding about what corporate sustainability means to the top and bottom lines of the business. In fact, CEOs understanding and embracing corporate sustainability may well be one of the most decisive factors in determining the long-term viability of their companies.

Buy Vs. Build: Acquiring For Innovation

In a recent article, we discussed how accomplishing systematic large-scale innovation practices remains elusive and confounding for most companies. This is largely due to the way managers are evaluated on current results, not future ones. The article, Kiss A Lot Of Frogs: Business Strategies For Innovation revealed the challenges faced by risk averse organizations and described what is really required to succeed in home-grown business innovation, providing a roadmap for business leaders to consider implementing in their own organizations. There are several other ways to fill the innovation gaps of your business and knowledge base with external technologies and ideas. Those include:

  • In-licensing (a partnership between two companies that have shared intentions, goals or fields of interest)
  • The capture of knowledge from alliances and other joint research projects
  • Acquiring innovative companies
  • Rolling the dice on venture investments

This article examines the merits and risks associated with the strategy of acquiring innovation.

Kiss A Lot Of Frogs: Business Strategies For Innovation

All business leaders will claim that innovation of process, products and services is of paramount strategic importance to their organizations. Yet accomplishing systematic large-scale innovation practices remains elusive and confounding for most. Evidence suggests that corporate process and structure are not the keys to unlocking the faucet to the innovation pipeline. Only 28 percent of the senior executives in a recent McKinsey survey1 said that they are more likely to focus on the risks of innovation than on the opportunities, but only 38 percent said that they actively learn from innovation failures and encourage the organization to do so as well. Even more alarmingly, only 23 percent of the employees believe that their organizations encourage them to learn from failure. Regardless of the challenges innovation poses, business growth is tied directly to maintaining competitive differentiation and that requires innovation to avoid stagnation. This article takes a hard look at what is really required to succeed in business innovation and provides a roadmap for business leaders to consider implementing in their own organizations.

A Fish Rots From the Head: A Commentary On Corporate Culture

Recently, a well-respected Chairman and CEO in the financial services industry shared an old saying with me. He said, “A fish rots from the head.” We were speaking about organizational culture at the time and the point he was making is that an organization’s culture originates from the top of the company. Of course, his statement is true, but that’s only a part of the culture puzzle.

Why Organizational Innovation Is So Difficult

In all ecosystems, organisms that evolve to survive the elements of their environments will likely continue their existence. Those that do not continue to evolve will most likely perish. Likewise, for business organizations to evolve, they must innovate their products, services, technologies, policies, processes and structures to capitalize on social, economic and industry trends within their environment. This is easier said than done. Organizational Evolution theory indicates that improvements through innovation are challenged by the complexity of business structures themselves, compounded by our own inability to comprehend the impacts of innovative ideas when presented with them. So what does it mean to evolve an organization and what are the secrets to doing it successfully?