The Idea in Brief
The Big Idea: Business history is marked by periods of relative stability punctuated by fundamental shifts in the competitive landscape that create inescapable threats and game-changing opportunities. Sustainability is an emerging business megatrend, like electrification and mass production, that will profoundly affect companies’ competitiveness and even their survival.
The argument: Understanding how leaders competed in previous megatrends—specifically, the quality movement and the rise of IT—can help companies craft the strategies they’ll need to gain advantage in this one.
A better approach: The road map is clear: Create a vision that moves systematically through four stages of value creation, starting with defensive tactics and then moving to offensive strategies.
Then establish and integrate execution capabilities in five key areas: leadership, assessment, strategy development, management integration, and reporting and communication.
Most executives know that how they respond to the challenge of sustainability will profoundly affect the competitiveness—and perhaps even the survival—of their organizations. Yet most are flailing around, launching a hodgepodge of initiatives without any overarching vision or plan. That’s not because they don’t see sustainability as a strategic issue. Rather, it’s because they think they’re facing an unprecedented journey for which there is no road map.